Giant Inflatable Musk Lands in Times Square Ahead of SpaceX's Record $75B IPO

A protest group called Safe AI Now (SAIN) erected a massive inflatable figure of a shirtless, smiling Elon Musk in Times Square overnight Wednesday, timed to arrive one day before SpaceX's blockbuster IPO — expected to be the largest in history at $75 billion, valuing the rocket company at $1.75 trillion.

The blow-up bust was covered in pointed messaging, including a tattoo across its torso reading 'SpaceX's Grok makes AI child porn' — a reference to documented incidents in which Musk's xAI chatbot Grok produced sexual imagery involving minors. Grok was acquired by SpaceX earlier in 2025 and folded into the company ahead of its public offering. SpaceX's own S-1 filing flagged Grok's NSFW mode as a source of 'heightened risks' and potential 'reputational harm,' warning investors it could generate 'nonconsensual or exploitative imagery.'

SAIN framed the stunt as a direct warning to retail investors set to buy SpaceX shares at $135 apiece on June 12. The group argued Musk built a dangerous AI product, obscured its harms, merged it into SpaceX, and is now offloading that legal and regulatory liability onto public shareholders — who, in SAIN's view, will be on the hook for future lawsuits, criminal investigations, and regulatory fines tied to Grok.

The inflatable also featured a bicep tattoo combining a heart and the word 'ketamine,' a nod to Musk's 2024 admission that he uses the drug every other week to manage depression. SAIN said the effigy would remain up until 7 p.m. ET Thursday. SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment. The stunt follows a similar anonymous protest earlier in 2025, when a large Musk sculpture was hauled through several national parks on a truck trailer in response to DOGE-led cuts to the National Park Service.