SpaceX’s biggest business risk? Politics

The company’s pre-IPO filing acknowledges the many levers of government that could supercharge, or stall, its ambitions.

[Photos: Louis Velazquez/Unsplash; SpaceX/Unsplash

In a new filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, SpaceX lays out ambitions that are expansive, even existential: deploying orbital data centers to build superhuman artificial intelligence, transporting humanity to Mars, and extending consciousness into the broader universe.

To make any of that happen, though, SpaceX remains highly dependent on the U.S. government, which must clear the path toward those goals. The company’s work has long hinged on regulatory approvals and buy-in from government customers. But the filing, which paves the way for ordinary investors to finally own a stake in arguably........

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