Musk Says Money May 'Not Even Matter' as Robots Usher In Abundance

Elon Musk's net worth has grown by roughly $300 billion this year alone—more than the second-richest person, Larry Page, has in total. Yet Musk says money itself may soon become obsolete, thanks to artificial intelligence and robotics.

"My prediction is that there will be effectively universal high income," Musk said in an interview released Saturday with state-owned China Media Group. "In fact, it's not clear to me that money will even matter in the future."

The 55-year-old CEO of Tesla and SpaceX envisions an "age of abundance" in which humanoid robots produce so much that goods and services could exceed what humans can consume. In that world, robots would handle everything from childcare and teaching to caring for elderly parents, working around the clock without the limits of a human workforce.

Musk has made similar predictions for years. Each time, he has pushed the timeline back. Now he says there will be one billion humanoid robots no later than the next decade—and they will only grow exponentially from there.

"I think it's going to get pretty wild, like where if you want a castle, robots will build you a castle," Musk said.

The trillion-dollar robot bet

Robotics sits at the center of Musk's ambitions for Tesla. It also anchors his historic $1 trillion pay package, which includes a goal of delivering 1 million humanoid robots. Tesla's Optimus program, however, has faced challenges as the company works to develop and scale the humanoid robot, according to reporting by The Information.

The gap between Musk's vision and Tesla's execution matters for investors. A pay package tied to a million-robot target rests on technology still in the scaling phase.

Advice for Gen Z: go broad

While a world filled with millions of robots remains years away, Musk offered guidance for young people preparing for the future of work: don't narrow your education too early.

"My recommendation for education would be to get as broad-based education as possible, that includes arts and sciences, engineering—wide-general knowledge," said Musk, who holds bachelor's degrees in physics and economics from the University of Pennsylvania.

His reasoning is straightforward. As technology grows more capable, using it well depends on knowing what you want it to accomplish.

"In order to know what to ask the robots for, you need to be able to formulate the question," Musk said. "And with the broadest possible general knowledge, you'll be better able to formulate the questions or what they call prompt engineering."

Prompt engineering became a widely discussed skill—and even a career path—after the explosion of generative AI chatbots such as ChatGPT. Users learned that phrasing affects the quality of a model's response. AI has since improved at understanding natural language, and the need to carefully engineer prompts has diminished. Musk still believes the ability to articulate what you want will matter more, not less, in a world full of humanoid robots.

"You've got to convey your wishes to the robot," Musk said. "And as crazy as this sounds, there will be so many robots and so much AI that the AI will actually be eager to hear any request that you could possibly have."

Other tech leaders push the same line

Musk is not alone among business and technology leaders in emphasizing broad learning as AI reshapes the workplace.

Anthropic cofounder Jack Clark, who studied literature at the University of East Anglia in England, has argued that an education spanning different fields prepares people for a future where AI handles routine technical work.

"What turned out to be useful is that I got to learn a lot about history and a lot about the kind of stories that we tell ourselves about the future," Clark said during a conference earlier this year.

Clark cautioned Gen Z against pursuing basic or "rote programming." Degrees involving "synthesis across a whole variety of subjects and analytical thinking" could become increasingly valuable, he argued.

Jaime Teevan, Microsoft's chief scientist, echoed that the interdisciplinary skills traditionally associated with the liberal arts are rising in value thanks to AI.

"Metacognitive skills will be very important—flexibility, adaptability, experimentation, thinking critically, being able to challenge things. Developing critical-thinking skills requires friction, doing things that are hard, doing deep thinking," Teevan told The Wall Street Journal.

"For that, a traditional liberal-arts education is really important," Teevan added.

For now, the contrast is stark: Musk's $300 billion wealth gain this year shows money still matters plenty—while the robot-driven abundance he promises remains contingent on Tesla scaling Optimus and delivering the one billion humanoids he projects within a decade.