With co-founders leaving and an IPO looming, Elon Musk turns talk to the moon | TechCrunch

"Musk told employees that xAI needs a lunar manufacturing facility, a factory on the moon that will build AI satellites and fling them into space via a giant catapult. "You have to go to the moon," he said, per the Times. The move, he explained, will help xAI harness more computing power than any rival. "It's difficult to imagine what an intelligence of that scale would think about," he added,"

"What Musk didn't appear to address clearly was how any of this would be built, or how he plans to reorganize the newly merged xAI-SpaceX entity that is simultaneously careening toward a potentially historic IPO. He did acknowledge, proudly, that the company is in flux. "If you're moving faster than anyone else in any given technology arena, you will be the leader," he told employees, per the Times, "and xAI is moving faster than any other company - no one's even close.""

"It isn't clear what prompted the all-hands, but the timing, whatever its cause, is at least curious. On Monday night, xAI co-founder Tony Wu announced he was leaving. Less than a day later, another xAI co-founder, Jimmy Ba, who reported directly to Musk, said he was bouncing, too. That brings the total to six of xAI's 12 founding members who have now left the young company."

Plans include a lunar manufacturing facility to construct AI satellites and launch them via a giant catapult, aiming to access computing power far beyond competitors. Details about how such infrastructure would be built and how xAI and SpaceX would be reorganized remain unclear. The company is undergoing leadership changes and six of xAI's 12 founding members have departed, including co-founders Tony Wu and Jimmy Ba. The departures have been described as amicable. A potential SpaceX IPO with a reported $1.5 trillion target could produce substantial financial gains for insiders as the companies realign and pursue large-scale ambitions.

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