How Trump may has made two of the world's richest men, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, change their Big plans for ....

Elon Musk’s SpaceX has planned to send multiple Starship rockets to Mars in late 2026, taking advantage of a favourable alignment between Earth and Mars. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk also lobbied US President Donald Trump directly, arguing that a Mars landing would cement his legacy as a ‘president of firsts’. But it seems that this equation has undergone a change. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, under the pressure from NASA and US officials, SpaceX has shifted its course. The company has now shifted its targets to March 2027 for unscrewed lunar landing, aligning with NASA’s Artemis program.

This pivot comes as SpaceX pursues ambitious new ventures, including space-based AI data centers following its merge with Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI, a deal which value the companies at $1.2 trillion. Musk framed the moon as a stepping stone: “The capabilities we unlock by making space-based data centers a reality will fund and enable self-growing bases on the Moon, an entire civilization on Mars and ultimately expansion to the Universe.”

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin refocuses on lunar competition

Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin also shifted gears recently. In January this year, the company paused its suborbital tourism business in order to concentrate on building a simplified lunar lander system. Bezos is positioning Blue Origin to complete directly with SpaceX for NASA contracts, aiming to deliver astronauts to the lunar surface.

Jared Isaacman, the NASA administrator also welcomed the rivalry between SpaceX and Blue Origin. Isaacman believes that this will give rise to new innovations. The Artemis II mission which is a lunar fly-by is scheduled to set the stage for a potential astronaut landing in 2028 with either SpaceX or Blue Origin providing the lander.

Trump’s push for lunar priorities, coupled with NASA’s funding and oversight, has reshaped the trajectories of Musk and Bezos. Musk, who once dismissed the moon as “a distraction,” now embraces it as a launchpad for deeper space ambitions. Bezos, meanwhile, has redirected Blue Origin’s resources to ensure it can challenge SpaceX head-on in the race to the moon.

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