In the months since Space Exploration Technologies (NASDAQ: SPCX) went public – and even before – barrels of virtual ink have been spilled describing how SpaceX, which began life as a rocket launch company, is leaning ever more toward becoming an artificial intelligence (AI) behemoth.
Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk predicts that, of the company’s $28.5 trillion total addressable market, $26.5 trillion will come from selling AI infrastructure, subscriptions, applications, and advertising. But SpaceX’s transformation from a space company into primarily an AI company is just one way that SpaceX is changing.
In 2026, according to Ars Technica, SpaceX might launch as few as 140 times – potentially falling below 2024’s total. And CNBC reports that SpaceX will slow its launch pace even further in 2027 as it moves forward with plans to slowly retire both the Falcon 9 launch vehicle and its Crew Dragon spacecraft.
SpaceX expects Starship to take up the slack. With 150 tons of payload to low Earth orbit, each Starship launch will have about six times the payload capacity of a Falcon 9.
The bolded sentence explains the reduced # of launches.
Larger satellites will be launched. Those satellite have more capacity & capability accelerating Musk’s cellphone service.
It appears to me that Space X next additional goals is AI & cellphone service while maintaining it Space business.
I believe Musk will make it work. But the P/E is too rich for this 75 year old guy. Of course one made a bundle if they bought TSLA in 2020. But if one bought in 2021 or 2022 not so much.
Sure, just like taking focus off Tesla as an EV manufacturer and putting it on Tesla as a taxi-cab company with SuperIntelligence® has.
And hey, about that foray into Solar Roofs: It was forecast they would be doing 1,000 installations a week. Instead, over the several years, they put in around 3,000 total. Many of which didn’t work, some of which melted the shingles they were installed over.
Tesla is ditching its solar roof tiles for a good reason
Tesla had to cut losses after significant mistakes and overspending
Tesla's Solar Roof panels were designed to look like regular shingles while delivering 98 percent of a normal solar panel's efficiency.
It did so by reflecting light to make the tiles appear like normal ones from street level despite being transparent when viewed from above. Unfortunately, the novel concept didn’t live up to expectations. In August 2026, Electrek reported that Tesla was discontinuing the product and that its third-party installer network would only be supplied with conventional solar panels going forward.
First revealed in 2026, the Solar Roof hit mass production in 2020. In a first-quarter earnings call in 2021, Tesla CEO Elon Musk admitted that “significant mistakes” were made that led to overspending and significant delays. Two years later, a Wood Mackenzie report found that only 3,000 U.S. homes had installed the product. Despite multiple redesigns, the Solar Roof tiles sold under Tesla’s expectations of 1,000 installations per week. Here’s how it all went down.
The short version is: they didn’t work nearly as well as advertised. They were vastly more expensive than predicted. They were hard to install. They … well, you get the idea.
Space X & Starlink are successful as is Tesla energy storage business..
Tesla is still profitable. Although we knew it would falter, it was inevitable, as more EV competition entered that marketspace. It remains to be seen if Musk can pivot to the RoboTaxi.
I can see him cutting his losses if Tesla EV business sector becomes unprofitable.