Elon Musk made many predictions at Davos 2026

Elon Musk, in his first-ever appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, offered a sweeping, sometimes provocative vision of the future, predicting a robot-majority world, artificial intelligence that surpasses human intelligence, and a race for electricity that could determine who wins the next phase of global growth.

Musk appeared on stage on Thursday in conversation with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, marking a change of tone for the billionaire, who has previously dismissed Davos as elitist and “boring”. Fink opened the session by urging the audience to clap more enthusiastically, before framing Musk as one of the most consequential industrialists of the century.

Musk began with humour, albeit to mixed reaction, joking about recent geopolitical tensions. “I heard about the formation of the peace summit and I was like, is that P I E C? You know, a little piece of Greenland, a little piece of Venezuela. We got one. All we want is peace,” he said.

A future with more robots than people

At the heart of Musk’s argument was a belief that AI and robotics will drive an economic expansion unlike anything seen before. “If you have ubiquitous AI that is essentially free, or close to it, and ubiquitous robotics, then you will have an explosion in the global economy that is truly beyond all precedent,” he said.

In what he described as a benign future scenario, robots and AI would eventually meet all human needs. “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,” Musk said. “My prediction is that there will be more robots than people.”

That shift, he argued, would force society to rethink work and purpose. “You can’t have work that has to be done and amazing abundance for all,” he said. “If it’s work that has to be done and only some people can do it, then it’s narrow.”

Tesla robots and robotaxis

Musk said Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robots would begin performing simple factory tasks later this year, with more complex industrial work expected within 12 months. Public sales, he suggested, could follow once reliability and safety were proven.

“Who wouldn’t want a robot to, assuming it’s very safe, watch over your kids, take care of your pets,” he said, adding that robots could help address the growing challenge of caring for ageing populations.

On autonomous driving, Musk described self-driving as “essentially a solved problem”. He said Tesla had already rolled out robotaxi services in a handful of US cities and expected them to become “very, very widespread by the end of this year”. He added that the company hopes to receive European approval for self-driving vehicles as soon as next month, without specifying where.

AI intelligence curves and alien jokes

Musk predicted that AI would become smarter than any individual human by the end of 2026 or no later than next year. Within around five years, he said, it could surpass the collective intelligence of humanity.

He also revisited his familiar theme of extraterrestrial life. “I’m often asked, ‘Are there aliens among us?’ And I say that I am one,” he joked. “If anyone would know if there were aliens among us, it would be me. We have 9,000 satellites up there and not once have we had to manoeuvre around an alien spaceship.”

Energy is the real bottleneck

While AI chips are being produced at an accelerating pace, Musk warned that electricity supply is lagging behind. “The limiting factor for AI deployment is fundamentally electrical power,” he said, noting that power generation growth in many countries is far slower than the expansion of computing capacity.

China, he argued, is an exception, particularly because of its scale in solar energy manufacturing and deployment. Solar, he said, is becoming the dominant energy source globally.

Musk claimed that an area roughly 100 miles by 100 miles of solar panels could theoretically power the entire United States, while parts of southern Europe could do the same for the continent. He criticised high US tariffs on solar panels, arguing they distort economics because China produces most of the world’s supply.

He said teams at SpaceX and Tesla are each working towards building up to 100 gigawatts a year of solar manufacturing capacity in the US.

AI in space and reusable rockets

Looking beyond Earth, Musk outlined plans for solar-powered AI infrastructure in orbit, arguing that space offers constant sunlight and efficient cooling. “The lowest cost place to put AI will be space,” he said, suggesting this could be viable within two to three years.

On SpaceX, he said the company hopes to prove full reusability of its Starship rocket this year. Achieving that, he argued, would slash the cost of access to space by a factor of 100, transforming satellite launches and making space-based infrastructure economically viable.

Ageing and the future of life

Musk also touched on longevity, calling ageing “a very solvable problem”. He suggested that because the body’s cells age in sync, there must be a biological clock that scientists will eventually identify. Still, he added a note of caution, arguing that death plays a role in preventing societies from becoming stagnant.

“I think there’s some risk of an ossification of society,” he said. “Things just getting locked in place.”

Optimism as strategy

Despite the scale and uncertainty of his predictions, Musk closed on a philosophical note. “I would encourage everyone to be optimistic and excited about the future,” he said. “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.”

At Davos, Musk offered no shortage of forecasts. Whether they arrive on his timelines or not, his message was clear. The future he envisions is coming fast, and the race to power it has already begun.