Elon Musk has said he plans to build a city on the Moon in as few as 10 years.
In a statement last night, Mr Musk said his SpaceX firm has shifted from focusing to Mars to Earth's natural satellite.
"For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years," he said.
"The mission of SpaceX remains the same: extend consciousness and life as we know it to the stars."
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Mr Musk had talked of plans of forming a colony on Mars as early as 2001 and has set a timeline for a self-sustaining colony on the Red Planet by 2050.
He has also pioneered reusable spacecraft through developments such as the Falcon 9 booster.
The Tesla CEO elaborated on the technical reasons for re-focusing on the Moon.
He said: "It is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months (six month trip time), whereas we can launch to the Moon every 10 days (two day trip time)."
Elon Musk has said SpaceX has shifted focus to establishing a city on the Moon
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He added that this makes the iterative process faster for establishing a Moon colony.
Mr Musk concluded that SpaceX "will also strive to build a Mars city and begin doing so in about five to seven years, but the overriding priority is securing the future of civilisation and the Moon is faster".
This comes as Artemis II, the planned second flight of Nasa's Space Launch System (SLS), was delayed from February to March of this year.
Artemis II is set to be the first crewed mission around the Moon since 1972.
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PICTURED: SpaceX's 'Starbase'. The firm's chief Elon Musk confirmed last night he would pivot to building a base on the Moon
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The spacecraft will take its four-person crew further than any previous crewed mission.
With this delay, SpaceX's crew 12 will be the next manned mission to space onboard the reusable Crew Dragon spacecraft.
The international crew, including two Nasa astronauts, will be heading to the International Space Station (ISS).
It will also send one Russian cosmonaut and a French representative of the European Space Agency.
PICTURED: Gene Cernan salutes on the surface of the Moon. The last crewed lunar mission, Apollo 17, took place in 1972 | PUBLIC DOMAINSpaceX's satellite internet company, Starlink, also launched an ad to air during the Super Bowl on Sunday.
The ad features science fiction author Arthur C Clarke talking about the future of scientific innovation.
It then showed clips of people accessing the internet from remote locations, with text displaying fast affordable internet available everywhere.
Starlink has been crucial in providing internet services during the Russia-Ukraine war - as well as during Iran's violent protests earlier this year.