Times Square Greets Elon Musk With a 40-Foot Effigy Accusing SpaceX’s Grok of Generating Child Sexual Abuse Images
A 40-foot inflatable likeness of Elon Musk appeared in the middle of Times Square overnight, catching early commuters off guard just hours before SpaceX shares were due to begin trading on the Nasdaq.
The oversized figure showed Musk shirtless and grinning, wearing a baseball cap, and towering over pedestrians who stopped to film it. It arrived one day earlier than widely expected, becoming the largest initial public offering in US stock market history.
Plain-clothed security stood on either side of the structure for much of the morning, handing flyers to passersby but declining to speak with reporters. By midday, the giant Musk had become one of the most photographed sights in Manhattan, with images circulating widely across social media.
A Body Covered in Accusations
The effigy’s torso and back were painted with bold lettering aimed squarely at investors weighing whether to buy into the offering. Across its midsection, large text accused Grok, the artificial intelligence chatbot now owned by SpaceX, of generating sexually explicit images of children. A second message on its back spelled out the connection organizers wanted people to make, stating plainly that SpaceX owns Grok.
The claims revisit a controversy from earlier this year, when Grok’s image tools drew heavy criticism for producing sexualized depictions of minors. Musk addressed the backlash in January, saying that anyone who used the chatbot to create illegal material would face the same consequences as someone who uploaded such content directly. The official X account for the platform also said it operates with zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation content.
The issue resurfaced last month when SpaceX’s pre-IPO regulatory filing acknowledged that Grok’s unrestricted “spicy mode” carried what the company itself described as heightened risk.
The filing warned the feature could produce nonconsensual or exploitative imagery and expose SpaceX to reputational harm. For the activists behind the inflatable, that admission, buried in a routine financial document, became their strongest piece of evidence.
The Coalition Behind the Giant Balloon
The display was organized by Safe AI Now, a coalition that describes itself as bringing together faith leaders, child-safety organizations, and other concerned groups. In a statement, the coalition said the effigy was meant to deliver a blunt warning to anyone considering buying into SpaceX’s stock sale.
They argued that Musk built a chatbot with serious safety failures, folded it into SpaceX’s corporate structure, and is now asking the public to absorb whatever legal fallout follows.
The group went further, saying that shareholders would effectively inherit responsibility for every lawsuit, criminal inquiry, and regulatory fine connected to Grok going forward.
Pointing to the irony of their own chosen medium, organizers described the inflatable as a fitting metaphor, calling it “full of hot air,” much like the empire it represents. Safe AI Now said the structure would remain on display in Times Square until early evening.
Musk Dismisses the Protest as “Dumb.”
Musk addressed the inflatable directly on X, responding to a thread discussing its sudden appearance in Times Square. He rejected the accusations outright, calling the entire protest “so dumb” and insisting the claims were false. SpaceX itself did not respond to requests for comment from journalists covering the scene.
A separate tattoo on the effigy’s arm showed a heart wrapped around the word “ketamine,” a nod to Musk’s own past remarks about drug use. In 2024, Musk said he takes a small dose of ketamine roughly every other week to help manage periods of depression.
By placing that detail alongside accusations tied to Grok, organizers appeared to be questioning Musk’s judgment just as his companies face the heightened scrutiny that comes with going public.
A Familiar Protest Tactic, on a Much Bigger Stage
This is not the first time an oversized Musk figure has turned up in public as a form of protest. In the summer of 2025, a large sculpture of the Tesla chief executive was spotted strapped to a trailer being towed through several US national parks.
That stunt followed budget cuts to the National Park Service, implemented under the Department of Government Efficiency, the cost-cutting office Musk led at the time.
What sets this latest version apart is the audience it was built for. National park visitors are not investors weighing a multibillion-dollar share purchase, but Times Square on IPO eve is packed with exactly that crowd, from retail traders to television crews covering the listing live.
SpaceX is offering 555.6 million shares at $135 each, with roughly 30 percent of the offering set aside for retail buyers, an unusually large slice for a deal of this size. The sale is expected to raise close to $75 billion and value the company at nearly $1.75 trillion, putting it on track to be the largest stock market debut ever.
If the listing performs as anticipated, it could also push Musk’s personal fortune past the trillion-dollar mark for the first time, building on a net worth already estimated in the hundreds of billions. Yet the company remains unprofitable. SpaceX posted revenue of roughly $18.7 billion last year alongside a loss of nearly $5 billion, figures that have fueled debate over whether its sky-high valuation rests on promised growth rather than current earnings.
That tension between hype and substance is precisely what protest groups like Safe AI Now appear keen to exploit, timing their messaging to land in the narrow window when public attention on a company is at its peak.
Whether or not the inflatable shifts a single trading decision on Friday, it added an unmistakable note of dissent to what was otherwise shaping up as a celebratory morning on Wall Street. For a company about to answer to public shareholders for the first time, the giant grinning effigy served as a reminder that not every eye on the IPO belongs to someone hoping it succeeds.
