Elon Musk has described SpaceX's plan to turn the Moon into a manufacturing site, telling investors the company would ship components to the lunar surface and build a giant electromagnetic "mass driver" — a concept dating to the 1970s — to launch Moon-made satellites into orbit without rockets. Fortune and Scientific American reported the remarks, made after SpaceX posted a $542 million loss in its space-launch segment in its first quarter as a public company.

Musk framed the idea as a way to dramatically cut the cost of putting mass into orbit and to support AI satellite constellations, though he acknowledged the engineering challenges are formidable, calling parts of the plan "pure insanity" while arguing the economics could eventually justify it. The plan is long-term and has no firm timeline; SpaceX's immediate priorities remain Starship development and Starlink expansion.

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