Conversation with Elon Musk | World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2026

[music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [applause] >> That was not a That was not a large applause. Start again. >> [applause and cheering] >> That's better. Thank you. Yeah, we're going to make this interesting. >> [laughter] >> How many How many quotes are you going to want that are going to be after this session? >> [snorts] >> Uh I don't know. I mean five. Okay. >> [laughter] >> So, uh good afternoon, everybody. It's great to see everybody here. Uh it's been an amazing week here in Davos. Um hopefully everybody saw that we are having conversations here. Hopefully everybody agrees. There [snorts] are some conversations that we may disagree. There's many conversations we may have agreed. But through those conversations and I think today's result with a peace agreement earlier today um the World Economic Forum is here to have those conversations, to have understandings, and also resolution. So, um uh it's an important component of who we and what we are, and I'm thrilled uh to have Elon Musk here. Um He came all the way from California to be here to see all of you. So, uh thank you, Elon. Uh you're most welcome. >> [applause] >> Um I mean, I heard I heard about uh heard about the formation of the the the peace summit. And I was like, is that uh is that p i e c? Uh >> [laughter] >> you know, little piece of Greenland, a little piece of Venezuela. [laughter] We got one. What we want is peace. >> [laughter] >> Okay, I want to uh as I said, I'm a pretty proud uh a CEO of BlackRock since we went public. Um uh the compounding return of BlackRock to our shareholders was 21%. Uh since Elon took Tesla uh public, his compounded return is 43%. This is I just another advertisement for everybody, especially for Europeans. This is why more citizens should be investing with growth, investing with your countries. Imagine if a lot of pension funds invested with Elon if when Tesla went public, and how much return with the all the pension funds that invested side by side with Elon and the growth. So, um a spectacular return. There's very few companies Well, I don't think there's any other company as large as Tesla today that has that compounded return. So, congratulations. >> Uh thank you. >> good measurement. Well, we have an incredible team at Tesla, and that's the reason. So, I want to get into uh the dirt the the meaningful component about technology, the possibilities. Um I want to talk about AI and robotics, energy, space, and the progress ultimately coming down to engineering, engineering discipline, scale, execution. Um and few few people, if not anyone, has the experience and the fortitude to confront these issues head-on. Not just the ideas, but the execution across so many different technologies, Elon, and that's why I thought I thought it was important for us to have this dialogue here uh in Davos. So, you're [clears throat] presently building on AI and robotics, on space, on energy, all at the same time. When you look across those efforts, what do they have in common from an engineering standpoint? Uh well, they're all very difficult technology challenges. Um but the uh the overall goal of my companies is to maximize the future of civilization. Like, basically maximize the probability that civilization has a great future. Um and uh to [clears throat] expand consciousness beyond Earth. So, if you take SpaceX, for example, that's SpaceX is about advancing rocket technology to the point where we can extend life and consciousness beyond Earth, uh to the moon, to Mars, eventually to other star systems. And uh I know I think we should always view consciousness uh life as we know it as as precarious and delicate. Um because to the best of my knowledge, we we we don't know if life anywhere else. You know, I'm often asked, um are there aliens among us? And I'll say that I am one, but Or you're from the future. They don't believe me. Okay. Um so, uh but I I I >> [clears throat] >> I think if anyone would know if there were aliens among us, it would be me. Um and uh we we have 9,000 satellites up there, and not once have we had to maneuver around an an alien spaceship. So, I'm like, I don't know. It's Bottom line is I think we need to assume that life and consciousness is extremely rare, and it might only be us. And if that's the case, then we need to do everything possible to to ensure that the the light of can the light the light of consciousness is not extinguished, because we're effectively we're we're we're The way I view it is the image in my mind is of a a tiny candle in a vast darkness, tiny candle of consciousness that could easily go out. Um and that's why it's important to make life multi-planetary uh such that if there is a natural disaster or a man-made disaster on Earth, that consciousness continues. That's the purpose of SpaceX. Um Uh Te- Tesla is obviously about uh sustainable technology, and uh and and also at this point we've we've sort of added to our mission sustainable abundance. So, with uh robotics and AI, um th- this this is really the path to abundance for all. If you say, you know, people often talk about uh solving global poverty, or essentially how how do we make give everyone a very high standard of living. I I think the only way to do this is AI and robotics. Um, which which doesn't mean that it is uh without its issues. I mean, this we need to be very careful with AI. We need to be very careful with robotics. We don't want to find ourselves in a James Cameron movie. Uh you know, Terminator. >> [laughter] >> Is is it goes is great great movies. I love his movies, but but we don't want to be in Terminator, obviously. Um, but but we if you have um ubiquitous AI that is essentially free or close to it and ubiquitous robotics, uh then you will have an an ex- an explosion in the in the global economy, an expansion in the global economy that is truly beyond all precedent. Elon, can that expansion be broad or is it narrow? And how can that be created? How can it broaden the global economy? Yeah, it's I mean I mean the way to think of it is that if you have a large number of humanoid robots, um the economic output is the average productivity per robot times the number of robots. Right. Um and and actually my prediction is in the in the benign scenario of the future that we will the robots will actually make so many robots and AI that they will actually saturate all human needs. Meaning you won't be able to even think of something to ask the robot for at a certain point. Like like the they will be such an abundance of goods and services because the [clears throat] my prediction is they'll be they'll be more robots than people. So But how do you then have human purpose in that scenario? >> Yeah, I mean you know, there was nothing's perfect, you know, but >> [laughter] >> um but but the I mean I mean it is it it is a a necessary um Like you can't have both. You can't have work that has to be done uh um and uh amazing abundance for all. Um because if it's if it's work that has to be done, then then then you and and only some people can do it, then you then you you you can't have abundance at all. >> Then it's narrow. >> It's narrow, exactly. So um but if you if you have billions of humanoid robots, I think there will be um the I think I think everyone on Earth is going to have one and going to want one. Um, because uh you're who wouldn't want a robot to, you know, um assuming it's very safe, watch over your kids, take care of your pet. Uh if you have elderly parents, uh a lot of friends of mine have said they have elderly parents and it's it's very difficult to take care of them. >> Yeah, it's expensive and and it's expensive and there just aren't enough people to take care of the there aren't enough young people to take care of the old people. >> Right. Um so if you if they um if you if you had a robot that could take care of and and protect an and elderly parents, I think that would be great. That would be an amazing thing to have. Um and and that I think we will have those things. So I mean overall I'm I'm very optimistic about the future. I think we're headed for a future of amazing abundance, uh which is very cool. Um and uh and and definitely >> [clears throat] >> we are in the most interesting time in history. Um I think there's no more no more interesting time in history. And can we can you and I reverse aging in this new history or or or are we going to see it? Uh you know, I haven't I haven't put much time into uh the aging stuff. I I I do think it is a very solvable problem. Like like you can do I think when when when when we find we figure out what causes aging, I think we'll find it's incredibly obvious. No, it's not a subtle thing. Um the reason I say it's not a subtle thing is because all the cells in your body you know, with some pretty much age at the same rate. I I've never seen someone with with an old left arm and a young right arm, ever in my life. Um so why is that? It it it that means that there must be a clock, a synchronizing clock that is synchronizing across 35 trillion cells in your body. Um and uh uh you know, the there is some benefit to death, by the way. >> [laughter] >> It's like there's there's a reason why we don't actually have a longer lifespan uh because if you if you have if you people do live for a very very long time, I think there's some risk of an ossification of society, of of things just getting kind of locked in place. Um and uh yeah, you're it it just may become um stultifying, just not uh lack lack vibrancy. Um but but that's that's that's it. Do I think we'll figure out ways to extend life and um and maybe even reverse aging? I think that's highly likely. I'm looking forward to that. Yeah. So um in the future that you talk about, the AI models, autonomous machines, rockets, depends on massive increases of compute, massive increases in energy, expensive energy, manufacturing scale. What are the bottlenecks to to get there? And then once again, with all that expenditures, again, how can we make sure that it's broadened, not narrow? Um >> [clears throat] >> I I just think the natural thing is it's going to be very broad because AI companies will seek as many customers as they possibly can. And the cost of AI will get is already very low and it's is plummeting every year. I mean, you almost the cost of AI is almost meaningfully changing on a month-to-month basis. There's open there's open models now everywhere. >> Yeah. Yes, very there's open models. Um the open models only lack the maybe a year behind the the private the sort of closed models. Um so so I I think the the AI companies will seek as as many customers as possible, which means they'll seek they'll provide AI to the world. >> But the cost of getting to there, the compute, the chips, um the fab, um the powering, that to me what what are the what are the you know, those are huge bottle >> The limiting factor. Yeah, I think the limiting factor for um AI deployment is fundamentally electrical power. It's just right. [clears throat] It's energy. Yeah, yeah. Um I mean, we're we're seeing the the rate of AI chip production increase exponentially, but the rate of electricity being brought online is uh 3% 4% a year. Acts. Yeah. It's clear that we're we're we're we're very soon, maybe even later this year, we'll be producing more chips than we can turn on. Ex- except for China. China China's China's growth in electricity is is tremendous. They're building 100 gigawatts of nuclear as we speak. Uh actually solar is the biggest thing in China. So China's I believe China's production capacity on solar is 1,500 gigawatts a year um and they're deploying over uh 1,000 gigawatts a year of of solar. Um Now, you know, for continuous solar load, you divide that by roughly I don't know, four or five. Uh call call it that's around uh 250 gigawatts of steady state power um paired with batteries. Um and that's a very big number. That's half of the average power usage in the US. Right. So US US power uh usage on average is is 500 gigawatts. Uh China just in solar just like just in in in solar like that can provide steady state power uh and batteries can do half of the US electricity output per year just with solar. Solar is by far it the the the biggest source of of of energy. Um and actually when you look beyond or even even even on Earth, but certainly beyond Earth, uh the the sun rounds up to 100% of all energy. This is an important thing to consider. Um so the the sun is 99.8% of the mass of the solar system. Jupiter is about 0.1% and everything else is miscellaneous. Um now even if you were to uh burn Jupiter in a in a thermonuclear reactor, uh the sun the amount of energy produced by the sun would still round up to 100% cuz Jupiter's only 0.1%. If you teleported teleported three more Jupiters into our solar system, the sun the and and burn three more Jupiters and everything else in the solar system, the sun's energy would still round up to 100%. So it's really all about the sun. Um and that's that's why uh one of the things we'll be doing with SpaceX uh in a within a few years is launching um solar powered AI satellites. >> Right. Um because the space is really the source of immense power and then you don't need to take up any room on Earth. Uh there's so much room in space. And you can scale to uh enormous uh I mean you can you can scale to I I think ultimately hundreds hundreds of terawatts a year. But we you and I have had these conversations before, but why don't you tell the audience what would it take for the United States and what type of geography would it take to have that solar field to electrify the United States? And And then let me ask a question, why aren't we doing it? Yeah, so I mean I I guess rough way to think about it is um 100 mi by 100 mi or quote uh 160 km by 160 km of [clears throat] solar is enough to power the entire United States. So, you 100 100 mi mi by 100 mi area is is I mean that you can take the basically a small corner of Utah Nevada Nevada, New Mexico. >> [clears throat] >> Obviously wouldn't want it all in one place, but I'm you can it's it's it's a it is a very small percentage of the area of of the US to generate all of the electricity that the US uses. Um and the same is true actually I mean for for Europe. You you could take a small part You could take uh uh relatively unpopulated areas of say Spain and Sicily and generate all of the electricity power that Europe needs. So, why don't you think that there's a movement towards that here and in the United States? Uh well, there there is >> As it is in China. Well, unfortunately in in the US the the the tariff barriers for solar are are extremely high >> [clears throat] >> um and that makes the economics of deploying solar uh so artificially high because China makes almost all the solar. Um and and the tax that What would it take for Europe or the US to build it commercially? If it's that scale. Yeah, I I I think I think uh Well, I can tell you what what we're going to do in SpaceX and Tesla was is we're we're building up um large-scale solar. Right. So, the the SpaceX and Tesla teams both separately are working to build to 100 gigawatts a year of solar power in the US. Uh of manufactured solar power. And um that'll probably take us another about 3 years, something. But that's that's These are pretty big numbers. Um and um you know, I I'd encourage others to do the same to do the same. Um We obviously don't control the you know, your US uh tariff policy. Uh but for for for for other countries uh I would recommend you know, that this China makes solar cells that are incredibly low cost and I think uh it would be worth uh doing large-scale solar. So, >> [clears throat] >> I know you are like you're going to be having a couple big announcements on robotics and what it can do. I mean when when I went to the factory, you showed me those robots. Yeah. Um how quickly you talked about the billions of robots, but how quickly and how quickly can they be deployed in a manufacturing setting? How quickly can they be utilized and be functional and be uh create that that abundance that you talked about? >> [clears throat and cough] >> Well, humanoid robotics will advance very quickly. I think uh we we we do have some the Tesla Optimus robots doing simple tasks in the factory. Um we expect it it probably later this year by the end of this year, I think they'll be doing um more more complex tasks. Um and and but still deployed in an industrial environment. >> [clears throat] >> And uh and probably sometime next year, I'd say that by the by the end of next year, I I think uh we'd be selling humanoid robots uh to the public. Um but that's when we are confident that the it's very high reliability, very high safety um and the range of functionality is uh is is also very high. You can basically ask it to do anything you'd like. We're already [clears throat] seeing that in Tesla cars is the software changes that you're doing. And then what is it every quarter now a software change that upgrades the the ability of the robot within the car? Uh yes, the Tesla full self-driving software we we update it sometimes once a week. Um and um recently [clears throat] some of the insurance companies have said that it is actually so safe uh when when Tesla full self-driving so safe that uh they're they're offering uh customers half-price insurance if they if they use Tesla full self-driving in the car. And that can be monitored by the insurance company. Can they Is that part of the agreement then? >> Yeah. Um but I I think a self-driving [clears throat] car is is essentially a solved problem at this point. Right. Um at and Tes- Tesla's ro- rolled out a sort of robot taxi service in a few cities in Right. will uh I be very very widespread by the end of this year within the US. And then we we hope to get supervised full self-driving approval in Europe hopefully next month. Really that quickly? Yeah, and then uh [clears throat] maybe a similar timing timing for China, hopefully. I want to move to space cuz historically space is very capital intensive. It it historically been done by governments. I believe SpaceX changed the whole model. Um but we've seen it slow slow to scale and now we're starting to see it ramping up in what you're doing and other things. Um talk to us about the reason you know, the automation and AI how it's changing the economics in building uh and preparing for us and operating in space. Uh sure. Um >> [clears throat] >> Well, the the key breakthrough that has that's the the major breakthrough that SpaceX is hoping to achieve this year is full reusability. >> [clears throat] >> Um so, no one has ever achieved full reusability of a rocket, which is very important for the cost of access to space. Um we've achieved partial reusability with Falcon 9 by landing the boost stage. We've We've now landed the boost stage over 500 times. Um but uh we we don't we have to uh throw away the upper stage. The upper stage so burns up on reentry for Falcon 9. So, and and that that the cost of that is equivalent to a small to medium-size jet. So, um but with with Starship, which is a a giant rocket, it's the it's largest flying machine ever made. That's the rocket that you're using for the idea of going to Mars, right? Yeah, Mars and the moon um as well as for uh high-volume satellite stuff. So, Starship um hopefully this year we should prove full reusability for Starship, which will be um a profound invention uh because uh the cost of access to space will drop by a factor of a hundred when you achieve full reusability. Um Right. It's it's the same sort of economic difference that you would expect that between say a reusable aircraft and a non-reusable aircraft. Like if you have to throw your aircraft away after every flight, that would be a very expensive flight. Um but if you only have to refuel uh then it's the cost of the fuel. And so, that's really the uh the the fundamental breakthrough that gets the cost of access to space uh we think uh below the cost of uh of freight on aircraft. Uh so, you know, under under a hundred dollars a a pound type of thing easily. Um so, it it it it makes uh >> [clears throat and cough] >> putting large satellites into into space a very low very very cheap. Um and then when you have solar in space, you you get uh five times more effectiveness, maybe even more than that than solar on the ground because it's it's always sunny and >> cold It Yeah, it's it's it's always Well, it's always sunny, so you you you don't have a day-night cycle or seasonality or weather. >> Um and you get about uh 30% more power in space uh because uh you don't have atmospheric attenuation of the power. Right. The net effect is solar is five times more uh the any given solar panel will do five times more uh energy in space than uh on the ground. Is there any capacity in doing that and and then taking that power and bringing it back to Earth? Is there any way of doing that or or you're just taking that power and utilizing it for the needs like building um uh AI data centers out in in the space? I I think I think the the case is it's it's a no-brainer for building uh AI solar-powered AI data centers in space um cuz as you mentioned, it's it's also very cold in space. If you're if you're if you're in the shadow, uh then it's it's very cold in space. It's 3° Kelvin. So, you just have you have solar panels facing the sun and then uh a uh radiator that's like point like pointed away from the sun. Um so, it has no sun incidence and then it's and then it's just cooling. It's a very efficient cooling system. So net effect is that the lowest cost place to put AI will be space and that and that'll be true within 2 years, maybe 3, 3 at the latest. Wow. >> [clears throat] >> So looking 10 or 20 years out, what would how would you describe success with AI or space technology and where do you see it? Is that can you are you more certain what's going to happen in the next 3 years or or 5 or 10? I don't know what what's going to happen in 10 years, but the rate at which AI is progressing I think we >> [clears throat] >> we're we might have AI that is smarter than any human by the end of this year and I would say no later than next year. Wow. And then probably by 2030 or 2031 quote 5 years from now AI will be smarter than [clears throat] all of humanity collectively. We only have a number of minutes left but I want I want to humanize you for a second. So there's no speculation that you're >> joke about peace. Right. Right. I want to >> [laughter] >> I mean I would frame this question by you are the most successful entrepreneur, industrialist in the 21st century, maybe beyond. I want to So I want to really get this you know, what inspired you? Who's inspired you? What was the foundation of your curiosity? And and importantly what was the what was the was there a aha moment, epiphany at any time in your life and career? Well um I mean as a kid I read a lot of science fiction sci-fi fantasy books. Yep, we talked about that. And comic books. And I always liked technology. I didn't expect to be where I am today. Seems incredibly implausible. But yeah, I was I was inspired by reading about books about the future about science fiction and and I guess I want to make science fiction not fiction forever at some point turn science fiction into science fact. Um and you know we want to have like Starfleet and Star Star Trek really for for real. Like where where we actually have giant spaceships traveling through space going to other planets traveling to other star systems going to places where we've never gone. >> to be beamed up to go back to New York. >> [laughter] >> You know, I I'd like to just be beamed back to New York instead of flying. Yeah. Um Talking about Star Trek. No, I guess my my essential what I would call the philosoph philosophy of curiosity I'm I'd like to understand the meaning of life. You know the it is the standard model of is the standard model of physics correct regarding the beginning of life beginning of existence and the end of the universe. What what questions do we not know to ask that we should ask? And AI will help us with these things. So I'm just trying to understand how do we get here? What's going on? What's real? Are there aliens? Maybe there are. And if we've got if we've got spaceships that are traveling to other star systems we may find we may encounter aliens and or we may find many long dead alien civilizations. But I I'm just I just I just want to know what's going on. I'm curious about the the universe and um that's my philosophy. Do you see yourself ever going to Mars in your lifetime? Yeah, I mean I would say like I you know I I there That's a long commitment. I've been asked Isn't that 3 years each way? It's 6 months. 6 months that's all it is? Yeah, 6 months but the planets only align every every 2 years. Okay. So um [clears throat] yeah, I've been asked a few times like do I want to you know, die on Mars and I'm like yes, but just not on impact. >> [laughter] >> That's a good that's a good answer. Anyway, we're out of time. I hopefully everybody enjoyed this. Um There's so many myths around Elon Musk. I can tell you he's a great friend and I constantly learn so much from him. Um and I'm totally inspired by what he's what he has done. I've been inspired who he is and I'm totally inspired by his vision of the future. And I don't think it's such a bad future and I agree with his optimism. So Elon, thank you. Any last words? Um Um Well, I think generally I think my last words would be I would encourage everyone to be optimistic and excited about the future. Good. Um and and and generally I think for quality of life it is actually better to err on the side of being an optimist and wrong rather than a pessimist and right. On that note >> [applause and cheering] [applause] [music]