Overview
- Elon Musk said artificial intelligence and humanoid robots could make work voluntary within 10–20 years and eventually render currency irrelevant.
- He tied the vision to Tesla’s Optimus, arguing robotics is the singular path to eliminating poverty and making everyone broadly wealthy.
- Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang replied that jobs will change rather than vanish and joked he would like a heads up before currency loses relevance.
- Musk noted that any post-scarcity future would still face hard limits such as electricity supply, data-center power and mass.
- The exchange occurred at a high-profile U.S.–Saudi investment forum attended by President Donald Trump and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as coverage highlighted large AI-focused investment pledges and raised questions about how any productivity gains would be distributed.