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The tech world was buzzing this week with reports that SpaceX was quietly preparing to enter the highly competitive smartphone market.
According to a bombshell report by The Wall Street Journal, the aerospace company recently demonstrated a prototype of an artificial intelligence-powered handset to investors and stakeholders ahead of its anticipated initial public offering (IPO). However, before the rumor mill could fully spin up, CEO Elon Musk took to X (formerly Twitter) to shut it down, flatly describing the claims as “utterly false.”
Here is a breakdown of what the report originally claimed, and why the idea of a SpaceX phone continues to capture the industry's imagination.
The "Slimmer Than an iPhone" Prototype
According to the WSJ report, SpaceX pitched the project to investors as an early-stage concept designed to reshape how humans interact with AI. The rumored hardware specs included:
Design: An ultra-thin form factor reportedly slimmer than Apple’s current iPhone lineup.
Processing Power: Powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors.
Software: A custom, proprietary operating system designed to bypass the strict app-store distribution rules controlled by Apple and Google.
AI Integration: Deep, native integration with xAI's Grok large language model.
The publication noted that SpaceX informed investors the project was still in its infancy, with the design constantly evolving and no guarantee that it would ever hit the consumer market.
Musk's Swift Denial
Despite the detailed report, Musk wasted no time killing the rumor. His two-word response on X—“utterly false”—leaves little room for interpretation.
This isn't the first time Musk has pushed back against rumors of a "Tesla Pi Phone" or a "Starlink Handset." Earlier this year, he clarified his stance on entering the smartphone market, bluntly stating, "The idea of making a phone makes me want to die." However, he did leave a slight opening in January when he admitted that while they aren't developing a traditional phone, a highly differentiated Starlink device was "not out of the question at some point."