Elon Musk has told SpaceX employees that artificial intelligence is poised to become the dominant force in the company’s future, projecting that AI will account for 99 percent of its value within four to five years while already generating substantial and rapidly growing revenue.

In a recent all-hands meeting with staff, the SpaceX chief executive outlined an aggressive shift. “Long-term, probably in four or five years, AI will be 99% of the value of SpaceX. I’d say five years for sure, AI will be 99% the value of SpaceX. And the value of SpaceX will be some astronomical number,” Musk said.

He also forecast a nearer-term milestone. “Definitely our AI revenue will exceed all other space revenue probably in September, like next month,” Musk told employees, adding that the segment “will significantly exceed all other SpaceX revenue in the fourth quarter.”

The comments come as SpaceX, now a publicly traded company, reported strong second-quarter results. Total revenue reached $7.8 billion, up 92 percent from the year-earlier period. The AI segment contributed $2.6 billion, representing roughly one-third of the total and growing about 247 percent year over year. Connectivity services, primarily Starlink, generated about $4.3 billion, while traditional space products and launch activities accounted for the remainder.

SpaceX has been expanding its AI-related offerings, which include access to the Grok family of large language models, cloud computing infrastructure and related services. The company has signed significant cloud services agreements, including deals involving Anthropic and Alphabet’s Google. In the second quarter alone, it reported $14.1 billion in contracted cloud sales. Capital expenditures remain elevated, with a large share directed toward building AI compute capacity.

Musk detailed ambitious infrastructure targets. The company currently operates about 1.4 gigawatts of AI compute power and aims to reach 2 gigawatts by the end of 2026, then approximately 10 gigawatts by the end of 2027. “The value per watt is probably going to be 30 to $50, which means if we bring 10 Gigawatts of AI online by the end of next year, it will be 300 to $500 billion a year in revenue,” he said.

In filings related to its public listing, SpaceX estimated a total addressable market of $28.5 trillion across its businesses, with $26.5 trillion attributed to AI. The projection underscores management’s view that compute infrastructure, model services and related software could far outstrip the scale of launch services and satellite internet over time.

The rapid growth in AI revenue has drawn investor attention, yet it also highlights execution risks. Building large-scale data centers and securing power requires massive ongoing investment. Competition in AI infrastructure is intense, with established cloud providers and specialized players vying for the same customers. Concentration risk exists as well; a single customer has accounted for a notable share of recent AI revenue in some periods.

SpaceX’s traditional businesses continue to advance. Starlink remains a leading provider of low-Earth-orbit broadband, and the company maintains its position as a dominant launch provider with reusable rocket technology. Development of the next-generation Starship vehicle proceeds alongside these efforts. Musk has framed AI success as supportive of the broader multiplanetary goals, suggesting that substantial AI cash flows could help fund long-term space ambitions.

Analysts have noted the dual nature of the opportunity and the challenge. Strong top-line growth in AI, if sustained, could support higher valuations even if near-term profitability remains constrained by heavy capital spending. At the same time, the bullish scenario depends on continued robust demand for AI compute, successful scaling of capacity, and the ability to convert contracted revenue into recurring, high-margin streams.

Musk has emphasized the strategic importance of succeeding in both hardware and software aspects of AI. The company is integrating capabilities across its ecosystem, including training models on internal data and expanding enterprise offerings. Whether the ambitious timelines materialize will depend on execution in an industry known for rapid technological change and significant capital intensity.

For investors, the message from the SpaceX leader is clear: the company that transformed access to space now sees its greatest long-term value in artificial intelligence. The coming months will test whether AI revenue can overtake other segments as quickly as projected, while the multiyear horizon will determine if the 99 percent valuation claim becomes reality. In the meantime, SpaceX continues to operate at the intersection of two of the most capital-intensive and transformative industries of the era—space exploration and artificial intelligence—with the balance between them shifting rapidly according to its chief executive.