On Monday, February 2, Elon Musk announced that SpaceX had officially acquired xAI in an all-stock deal, formally tying together rocket launches, a global satellite network, and advanced artificial intelligence under one roof.
The merger fuses SpaceX’s launch systems and Starlink satellites with xAI’s AI infrastructure, creating what Musk himself called “one of the most ambitious, vertically integrated innovation engines on (and off) Earth.”
At an estimated valuation of $1.25 trillion, the combined entity now stands as the largest private company ever created.
Put simply, rockets and artificial intelligence are no longer separate forces. They are now one system, moving at the same speed and under the same command.
Why Glenn Beck Says This Is Not Business As Usual
While much of the public has treated the announcement as just another step in Silicon Valley’s relentless march forward, Glenn Beck argues the implications are far more profound.
According to Beck, the merger turns a long-discussed idea into something real and imminent. SpaceX recently proposed launching up to one million satellites, not merely for communications, but as a vast, orbiting network of AI-powered computing systems.
This would dramatically expand cloud processing power, shifting significant portions of artificial intelligence infrastructure off the planet and into low Earth orbit.
To Beck, that is not innovation at the margins. It is a structural overhaul.
Redesigning Space Itself
“This is far bigger than most people realize,” Glenn says.
“To give you some idea, right now humanity has roughly 14,000 active satellites operating and orbiting Earth, OK? That’s every nation. That’s every military. That’s every weather system, every GPS signal, every communications platform humanity has ever put into space,” he says.
“Even if only a fraction of that number is ever launched, this is not an expansion of what exists today. This is a complete redesign of space around Earth. This is a replacement of the scale itself.”
The numbers alone are staggering. Tens of thousands, or potentially hundreds of thousands, of new objects would occupy orbital corridors that are already finite and increasingly crowded.
History Repeating Itself Above Our Heads
Beck frames the moment as a familiar story with a new setting.
In the 1800s, Beck explains, power in America flowed to “who controlled the rivers and then later who controlled the railroads.”
Today, the same dynamic applies, “except the frontier is not land; it’s the sky.”
Like land, orbit is limited. There are only certain altitudes that are practical and safe for long-term operations.
“You place tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of objects into those corridors, you’re no longer participating in space. You’re designing and structuring it.”
In that sense, Beck argues, the SpaceX-xAI merger mirrors the rise of industrial monopolies that built the physical backbone of past economies.
Scale, Not Ownership, Is The Real Power
Beck likens Musk’s strategy to a single company constructing every major road and bridge before anyone else has a chance.
What Musk is positioned to do, Glenn says, is the equivalent of “one company building every road, every bridge, every highway and [saying], ‘Everybody else can use them, but we built them first,’”
“Control doesn’t require ownership; it requires scale, and that is what Elon Musk is very good at,” he says.
In orbit, first movers gain advantages that are difficult, and sometimes impossible, to undo.
Why This Matters To Everyday People
Why should anyone outside tech circles care?
“Because for the first time in history, a private company is positioned to shape the planetary structure … faster than governments, cheaper than any nation, with replacement cycles measured in months, not decades,” Glenn answers.
In Beck’s view, space is shifting from a shared frontier to managed infrastructure.
“The sky itself [is] becoming managed infrastructure,” and history suggests that whoever builds first sets the rules.
“These kinds of pioneers don’t just win,” Glenn says. “They set the rules that everybody else spends decades trying to renegotiate.”
A Frontier That May Soon Be Gone
Beck warns that major power shifts rarely feel urgent at first.
“Every great power shift in history looks small right up until the time it doesn’t. And by the time most people look up, the frontier is already gone.”
For now, the night sky still feels open and unchanged. But that may not last long.
“When you go out at night, you’re going to see a different sky,” Glenn says.
