Jeff Bezos's post-Amazon focus isn't on space colonization but on offshoring Earth's polluting industries, like manufacturing and data centers. This "garden and garage" concept treats space as a utility to preserve Earth's environment, not just a frontier for human exploration.

The next wave of space companies is moving away from the vertically integrated "SpaceX model" where everything is built in-house. Instead, a new ecosystem is emerging where companies specialize in specific parts of the stack, such as satellite buses or ground stations. This unbundling creates efficiency and lowers barriers to entry for new players.

Jeff Bezos's new AI startup, Project Prometheus, is focused on engineering and manufacturing for computers, aerospace, and automobiles. This is a strategic move to create vertically integrated AI for industries where he has massive existing investments (AWS, Blue Origin, Rivian), signaling a focus on physical-world applications over competing in the crowded foundation model space.

Following predictions from Jeff Bezos and investments from Eric Schmidt, Elon Musk has entered the space-based data center race. He stated that SpaceX will leverage its existing Starlink V3 satellites, which already have high-speed laser links, to create an orbital cloud infrastructure, posing a significant challenge to startups in the sector.

SpaceX's dominant position can be framed for an IPO not as a player in terrestrial industries, but as the owner of 90% of the entire universe's launch capabilities. This narrative positions it as controlling the infrastructure for all future off-planet economies, from connectivity to defense, dwarfing Earth-bound tech giants.

Despite trailing SpaceX by 10 years, Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin demonstrates that in capital-intensive industries like space, long-term persistence funded by a founder's deep pockets can overcome a significant time deficit—a strategy unviable for typical VC-backed startups.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's move to partner with a rocket company is a strategic play to solve the growing energy, water, and political problems of massive, earth-based data centers. Moving AI compute to space could bypass these terrestrial limitations, despite public skepticism.

SpaceX is reportedly targeting a $1.5 trillion IPO to raise $30 billion. This capital isn't just for rockets but to fund a new AI infrastructure business: data centers in space. This represents a significant strategic shift, leveraging its launch dominance to compete in the AI compute market by acquiring massive quantities of GPUs.

Contrary to his long-held anti-IPO stance, Elon Musk is reportedly racing to take SpaceX public. The primary driver is the immense capital required to build AI data centers in space, a strategic pivot from Mars colonization to competing in the orbital computing infrastructure race against rivals like Jeff Bezos.