Inside This SpaceX Billionaire’s Mission To Build A Fleet Of Outer Space Taxis

Forbes Daily Briefing

Forbes

Business, Tech News, News

4.4 • 18 Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2026

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | Apple Podcasts | RSS

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Summary

Tom Mueller is driving his candy green Porsche Taycan Turbo S the way he builds rocket engines: with a terrifying amount of instantaneous thrust and little regard for the local speed limits of El Segundo. He is headed west on Marine Avenue, cutting through the smog-tinted sunlight of Los Angeles’ South Bay aerospace corridor, talking about Earth’s limitations. “If we continue to grow like we have, eventually you just use up all the metals, you use up all the energy,” says Mueller, 65, who is especially concerned by the energy demand of AI data centers. “By about 2045, the total power that the world is generating right now would be needed just for compute. Exponential growth can crush resources on Earth.” From behind his reflective wrap-around shades, Mueller spots a gap in the afternoon congestion. His electric sports car can rocket from zero to 60 in 2.3 seconds, and Mueller seems eager to demonstrate the point. “This is where we accelerate,” he says, stomping on the pedal. The torque hits like a physical blow, pinning us against the leather seats as Mueller cackles. “The moon and the near-Earth asteroids,” he continues moments later, now parked at a red light, “contain billions of tons of metal, silicon, water and ice, so we have to start using it. It seems a little farfetched to start using it now, because we just haven’t built the space economy. We haven’t got there yet.” By John Hyatt, Forbes Staff Alicia Park, Reporter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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1:00.7	Today on Forbes, inside the SpaceX billionaire's mission to build a fleet of outer space taxis.
1:10.0	Tom Muller is driving his candy green Porsche Tycan Turbo S, the way he builds rocket engines,
1:16.6	with a terrifying amount of instantaneous thrust and little regard for the local speed limits of El Segundo.
1:22.6	He is headed west on Marine Avenue, cutting through the smog-tinted sunlight of Los Angeles's
1:28.9	South Bay Aerospace Corridor, talking about Earth's limitations.
1:33.9	The 65-year-old Mueller is especially concerned by the energy demand of AI data centers.
1:39.7	He says, quote, if we continue to grow like we have, eventually you just use up all the metals,
1:45.5	you use up all the energy. By about 2045, the total power that the world is generating right now
	...

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