The world's richest man has made another bold prediction about the future of work.
Elon Musk says artificial intelligence and humanoid robots will soon produce so many goods and services that humans will simply run out of things to do.
He made the statement during a recent conversation with entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, executive chairman of XPrize Foundation. A video clip of the interview was shared on X and has since gone viral.
According to Musk, this is not a distant dream. It is a shift that is already happening.
What Elon Musk Actually Said
Musk put it plainly in the clip. "AI and robots are going to make so much stuff and provide so many services that they’ll run out of things to do for humans," he said.
He explained the same idea at the US-Saudi Investment Forum in Washington. The event was hosted by US President Donald Trump and attended by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Top tech leaders including Nvidia co-founder Jensen Huang were also present.
For Musk, robots working non-stop at very low cost will change the entire meaning of economics.
Why He Thinks Money Will Lose Value
Musk, who recently became the world’s first trillionaire after SpaceX growth, believes abundance will kill scarcity.
When robots produce far more than people can consume, prices will crash. Production cost will almost disappear because machines do not need salaries, breaks or holidays.
In that world, money may no longer matter.
"I think money will stop being relevant at some point in the future," Musk said. When Diamandis asked if money loses value just as he becomes richer, Musk replied, "Yeah, pretty much."
The comments were first reported by Fortune and Associated Press.
Work Will Become Optional
Musk predicts that in the next 10 to 20 years, having a job will be a choice, not a necessity.
He compared future work to hobbies. People will work if they enjoy it, like playing sports or video games.
"You could go to the store and buy vegetables, or you could grow them in your backyard. It’s much harder, but some people still do it because they like growing vegetables," he said.
This is not the first time he has said it. Responding to reports that Amazon could replace over 160,000 workers with AI by 2027, Musk wrote on X that "AI and robots will replace all jobs. Working will be optional."
Can Robots Really End Poverty?
Musk went further at the US-Saudi forum. He said AI and humanoid robots will actually eliminate poverty.
His argument is simple. There is only one way to make everyone wealthy, and that is to make labour cheap and productivity unlimited through robotics.
He pointed to Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robot as an example. Musk has said robots could become a bigger industry than smartphones, and many companies, not just Tesla, will build them.
To manage the transition, he has previously proposed a universal high income. This would give people access to the abundance created by machines.
Not everyone agrees. On social media, many users described his vision as a fantasy similar to the movie Wall-E. Others argued such abundance would only benefit the rich.
Even Jensen Huang offered a more careful take at the forum. "Everybody’s jobs will be different. I think that’s for sure," he said.
For now, Musk insists poverty is an engineering problem. And according to him, AI and robots are the engineering solution.
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