No plans for SpaceX to venture into military drones, weapons systems: Musk

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk clarified that his company has no plans to develop or venture into the business of military drones or weapon systems during the 2025 edition of the ‘Qatar Economic Forum Powered by Bloomberg’ Tuesday.Musk underscored that SpaceX is a leader in space launch and global connectivity, saying, "SpaceX doesn’t do drones. SpaceX builds rockets, satellites, and Internet terminals.”Elaborating on SpaceX’s current role, Musk highlighted the company’s dominant position in space launch, projecting it will account for approximately "90%” of mass launched to orbit this year.He said, "China will do half of the remaining amounts of 5%. And the rest of the world, including the rest of the US, will do about 5%. So, SpaceX will do about 10 times as much as the rest of the world combined, or 20 times as much as China. And China is doing a very impressive job."The reason for this is that we are putting into orbit the largest satellite constellation the world has ever seen by far. So, I think at this point about maybe approaching 80% of all active satellites in orbit are SpaceX. And they’re providing high bandwidth global connectivity throughout the world. In fact, this connection is on the SpaceX connection.”Musk also explained that while SpaceX is "frequently asked to do weapons programmes,” the company "has thus far declined.” He reiterated, "I don't currently anticipate SpaceX getting into the weapons business. That’s certainly not an aspiration.”Asked if there are plans for a public listing of SpaceX or Starlink, Musk said: "It’s possible that Starlink may go public at some point in the future...I mean, [there’s] no rush to go public.”