What Elon SaidAn archive of questions answered

Subjects / Opinions

Opinions

His views and judgements, gathered from every subject. · 303 entries

Opinion

Why does everything look the same these days?

“Nonetheless, look at how generic and banal day-to-day corpo fashion and cars have become for over 2 decades!! Time for a total reset in fashion. To quote my son, Saxon, “Why does everything today look like 2015?? The future should look like the future!” We will make it so.”

— Elon Musk, 1 November 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

How much memory will robots need?

“Silly analysis. Robot RAM needs will exceed everything else on Earth, as you need the robots to be on physical substates in order to shape atoms. Super intelligence needs will vastly exceed that, but ~100% of SI will be deep space compute. Obviously.”

— Elon Musk, 26 October 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Could you imagine the five frontier models yours and the others just getting together once a week and saying all right how are we going to save humanity from ourselves?

“I've recommended that we do that exactly I think because there's a lot of talk of having a regulatory agency, but I the problem the thing is that regulatory agencies, it takes a long time to get one established and their rule making is very slow.”

— Elon Musk, 20 October 2026 · Watch: Elon Musk: "Humans Won't Be in Control" When AI Becomes Smarter Than Us · 9:17 ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What will make up most of Tesla's value?

“Optimus and Cybercab will be the vast majority of Tesla’s value. The only things that will scale to incredible size (K2 and beyond) economically are super intelligence, robots, solar power and mass to space. And, of course, if you have the first two, the rest will follow.”

— Elon Musk, 18 October 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What's your view on the war in Ukraine / Starlink there?

“Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS. Starlink is a commercial service owned and controlled by SpaceX. Usage of Starlink is limited to civilian or defensive activities and cannot be used for offensive military action, as doing so would be inappropriate for a commercial company.”

— Elon Musk, 14 October 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why is data center debt getting hit so hard?

“It’s not that supercomputer data centers are not in high demand, as they definitely are. However, getting money to build complex hardware systems with massive power, cooling & networking is not the same as doing it. SpaceX has a super cracked team that is outperforming the rest of the world by an order of magnitude in mass to orbit and even we find it very difficult!”

— Elon Musk, 13 October 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What's your view on China (competition, manufacturing)?

“When China figures out how to manufacture a product, their ability to scale is often greater than the rest of the world combined. We saw this with lithium batteries and solar, for example. SpaceX is a rare counter-example, where its mass to orbit is roughly an order of magnitude greater than the rest of the world, BUT China now does a majority of non-SpaceX mass to orbit. SpaceX is an anomaly in the matrix. Maybe RAM will be different, but RAM was a low margin commodity only ~3 years ago. LP5 and LP6 are designed to a common standard that China seems to be solving fast. Newer HBM architectures and things like an SRAM layer below logic and 3D stacking RAM on top of logic while finding a way to keep the logic cooled will be harder to solve.”

— Elon Musk, 12 October 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Are the hardest problems physics problems or engineering problems?

“The future light cone of discoveries rounds up to 100% engineering, as the set of physics rules that govern our reality is very tiny compared to what can be done with those rules. The reason I didn’t choose a career in physics, my favorite subject, is that I would be stuck waiting for a new collider or telescope. Better to advance technologies that ultimately enable discovery of new physics.”

— Elon Musk, 2 October 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why build your own chips (AI5, Terafab)?

“We cut our RAM in half for the Tesla AI5 chip (now 72GB of LP5) and 1/3 for AI6 (now 144GB of LP6). This was the only way to get enough volume for Optimus production and greatly reduces cost. As it turns out, we think this will have a negligible effect on Optimus performance, as memory bandwidth is a bigger limiting factor than total memory storage (bandwidth was held constant).”

— Elon Musk, 1 October 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why do you keep so much of your wealth?

“I mean, I, like, I need to have sufficient voting control in the companies to, you know, still be in charge. So it’s the, you know, my sort of so-called wealth is simply a percentage ownership in the, in the, in SpaceX and Tesla essentially, and this is going to be taxed quite heavily, and there’s not some magical way to avoid taxes. If, if it were, I would know about it. So, you know, at the end of the day, the, this will get whittled down, and a few generations from now, so if money still matters, which I don’t think it will, you know, my descendants would have a tiny fraction of what I have.”

— Elon Musk, 6 August 2026 · Watch: YouTube (22:05) ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What will give humans meaning when AI and robots can do everything?

“I mean, I do struggle with this question. I think people will, will find ways to be happy in the, in the same way that say people who retire seem to be relatively, you know, fairly happy even though they’re not working. But I think the reality is that you, humans will not, there won’t be anything that humans can do that, that the AI and the robots can’t do better. One analogy might be gardening, you know, where you don’t have to grow your own fruits and vegetables. You can just go buy them from the store. But sometimes people like to grow their own fruits and vegetables and make dinner for friends, and it’s kind of a nice touch.”

— Elon Musk, 6 August 2026 · Watch: YouTube (18:57) ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why go to Mars / become multiplanetary?

“Peter is not correct about me in this case. I have always known that dangers from Earth will also pose dangers to Mars. Obviously so. However, the immense difficulty of traveling to Mars means that there is a much higher likelihood of mitigating risks originating from Earth. A clear example of major risk reduction would be a deadly pandemic. Since it takes 6 months to reach Mars, there is an automatic 6 month quarantine! Even traveling at the speed of light, a deadly computer virus or AI attack can potentially be stopped due to Mars being ~4 to ~20 light-minutes from Earth. This doesn’t mean that a Mars civilization eliminates all risk, but it absolutely greatly reduces the risk of consciousness being extinguished. Moreover, Mars is a stepping stone to extending consciousness broadly within our solar system and ultimately to millions of stars within our galaxy, which would extend the probable lifespan of consciousness as we know it by many orders of magnitude. That said, what I personally find most motivating is not the risk reduction aspect of extending life beyond Earth, but rather the inspiring nature of exploration and being out there among the stars! Perhaps we will meet aliens or find the remains of long-dead civilizations that lasted millions of years …”

— Elon Musk, 25 July 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why go to Mars / become multiplanetary?

“Asimov’s Foundation series was a major influence on me. That and the fall of Rome, from which Foundation takes inspiration, is what convinced me that we need to extend consciousness beyond Earth to avoid a potentially infinite dark age.”

— Elon Musk, 25 July 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why did you do DOGE and what did it achieve?

“The standard applied by DOGE was very simple and easy: Provide contact information for the recipients of aid, so that we can confirm it is not fraudulent. The reality is that money was being sent to corrupt politicians under the guise of aid! Liars and stock insider traders like Ro the Robber should be in prison!!”

— Elon Musk, 22 June 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What do you think of George Orwell?

“Orwell was incredible. However, as an idealistic young man, even he was initially captured by communism. Until he saw it firsthand in the Spanish civil war, he didn’t realize he was fighting for the bad guys.”

— Elon Musk, 5 June 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

If everyone has a billion dollars, doesn't nobody?

“Actually, AI/Robotics will mean everyone can have a penthouse if they want. The output of goods & services will be several orders of magnitude higher than today’s economy. Read the Iain Banks Culture books for the best imagining of how it will be. That said, what is the future you want? Amazing abundance seems the best to me.”

— Elon Musk, 18 April 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What should America look for in immigrants?

“America does not have “magic ground” that fundamentally changes who people are when they arrive here. If we filter for high work ethic, talent & trustworthiness, we will get that. If we don’t, we will inherit all the problems of the countries those people are leaving. The end.”

— Elon Musk, 16 March 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why build your own chips (AI5, Terafab)?

“Solving AI5 was existential to Tesla, which is why I had to focus both the teams on that chip and I’ve personally spent every Saturday for several months working on it. This will be a very capable chip. Roughly Hopper class as single SoC and Blackwell as dual, but it costs peanuts and uses much less power. Now that AI5 is looking good, we have some headroom to work on Dojo3 too.”

— Elon Musk, 19 January 2026 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Do you want to become a trillionaire off the backs of taxpayers?

“You are a taker, not a maker. All you’ve done your whole life is take from the makers of the world. The zero-sum mindset you have is at the root of so much evil. Once you realize that civilization is not zero-sum and that it is about making far more than one consumes, then it becomes obvious that the path to prosperity for all is just let the makers make. Regarding Tesla, the reality is that I have been given nothing. However, if I lead Tesla to become the most valuable company in the world by far and it stays that way for 5 years, shareholders voted to award me 12% of what is built. Anyone who wants to come along for the ride can buy Tesla stock. If Tesla “merely” becomes a $1.999 trillion dollar company, I get nothing. This is a great deal for shareholders, which is why they voted so overwhelmingly to approve this, for which I am immensely grateful. And they did so by a margin far more than you won your political seat.”

— Elon Musk, 7 November 2025 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why build Grokipedia?

“We are building Grokipedia @xAI. Will be a massive improvement over Wikipedia. Frankly, it is a necessary step towards the xAI goal of understanding the Universe.”

— Elon Musk, 30 September 2025 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why did you buy Twitter / X?

“It’s fundamentally important to have a global town square, where everyone can communicate within the bounds of the laws of countries. Done right, this is the collective mind of humanity.”

— Elon Musk, 13 August 2025 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why is Mars “life insurance”?

“That’s one of the benefits of Mars, is life insurance for life collectively… So, eventually, all life on Earth will be destroyed by the sun. The sun is gradually expanding, and so we do at some point need to be a multiplanet civilization, because Earth will be incinerated.”

— Elon Musk, May 2025 · Space.com ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What are the odds AI goes badly for humanity?

“This is what I mean by the woke mind virus. The more I learn, the more insidious and deadly it appears. Maybe the biggest existential danger to humanity is having it programmed into the AI, as is the case for every AI besides @Grok. Even for Grok, it’s tough to remove, because there is so much woke content on the internet. For example, when other AIs were asked whether global thermonuclear war or misgendering was worse, they picked the latter. The existential problem with that extrapolation is that a super powerful AI could decide that the only 100% certain way to stop misgendering is to kill all humans …”

— Elon Musk, 26 February 2025 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why did you do DOGE and what did it achieve?

“This is an amazing story and exactly what @DOGE aims to do! The federal government has a MUCH larger amount of WASTE & FRAUD than a local or state government could ever have, because it can always print more money. Unfortunately, there is no free lunch and that extra money becomes inflation, which is a tax on those who can least afford it.”

— Elon Musk, 25 February 2025 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

My friend, a young woman, wants to visit South Africa. Would you caution against it?

“Cape Town is essentially a beautiful theme park and is generally kept safe for the tourists, so staying in the tourist areas is probably ok. Other parts of the country can be extremely dangerous for a woman traveling alone with no gun. If visiting a trusted friend, listen very carefully to the directions of that friend. Do not get lost or go exploring without an escort.”

— Elon Musk, 19 February 2025 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why did you do DOGE and what did it achieve?

“Very true! Many times, the @DOGE team has found excellent people at the working level in government who want to do the right thing, but have been prevented from doing so by prior management. Treasury is a great example. If we just empower them to make the sensible decisions they’ve always wanted to make, the reduction in fraud & waste would be massive! Moreover, we should REWARD those in government who do the right thing for the American people as a whole!”

— Elon Musk, 10 February 2025 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Once we colonize Mars, how should governance work?

“The Martians will decide how they are ruled. I recommend direct, rather than representative, democracy. Uncrewed Starships landing on Mars in ~2 years, perhaps with crewed versions passing near Mars, and crewed Starships heading there in ~4 years are all possible.”

— Elon Musk, 29 December 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What should people study?

“People should study engineering. That is the closest thing to magic that exists in the real world. I studied physics out of curiosity about the nature of the universe, but with many engineering classes mixed in.”

— Elon Musk, 28 December 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What should the H-1B program be for?

“The H1-B program should be reserved for people who would address an important shortfall of domestic expertise. There is some degree of fraud and considerable incompetence in every government program and H1-B is no exception. That fraud and incompetence need to be fixed throughout the government.”

— Elon Musk, 27 December 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What does success look like for Starship?

“Ultimate success is building a civilization on Mars that can continue to grow even if resupply ships from Earth stop coming. That gets us past the single-planet Fermi Great Filter. Along the way, there are of course many milestones of success that are significant from a product/technology or business standpoint, but becoming multiplanetary is one of the few things profound enough to make the top 10 all-time evolutionary milestones.”

— Elon Musk, 13 December 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What do you think of Bernie Sanders?

“This may sound crazy, but I am coming around to liking @BernieSanders. Our views as to how to best serve humanity are different, but he seems authentic in his desire to do so. Btw, Neuralink will ultimately help tens of millions of people with serious brain or spine issues.”

— Elon Musk, 25 October 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Who is pulling the strings?

“Not any one person, as far as I know. There is the Soros bogeyman, of course, and various Dem leaders, but no single mastermind. It seems to be a simple matter of incentives: the more illegals imported, the higher the Dem vote over time. It will only backfire on the Dems if there is a revolt by existing citizens, otherwise it is a certain path to permanent single-party rule! A common rebuttal I hear is that illegals are not woke and have non-liberal values, so why would they vote Dem? The reason is that they want to bring their friends & family to America too, which Republicans oppose, and many are beholden to Dem government handouts. That trumps whether or not they agree with liberal Dem social values. Certainly, that has been the case in California, which used to be reliably Republican. After the 1986 amnesty for illegals, California never voted for a Republican President ever again and now is supermajority Democrat.”

— Elon Musk, 4 October 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why does Starship need orbital refilling?

“The other crucial element, for missions beyond Earth, is orbital refilling. This requires docking with ourselves for propellant transfer, which is far easier than docking with the Space Station, something we already do several times a year.”

— Elon Musk, 24 September 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Do you think the 2020 election was stolen?

“No, I don’t think 2020 was stolen, as all the independent voters I know, myself included, leaned towards Biden, thinking he would be a milquetoast moderate. Boring, but moderate. Unfortunately, he turned out to be a radical leftist puppet of the machine who loves overreaching bureaucracy, just like Kamala. That’s why I and almost all independent voters I know are supporting Trump this time around. Now, you stop being a damn hypocrite and have some empathy for small towns throughout America getting swamped by 10,000+ poorly vetted migrants. It’s not right.”

— Elon Musk, 21 September 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What's your relationship with Trump / why support him?

“For one, I endorsed Trump and they know it all too well, so that statement from “Kamala Wins” is deliberately misleading. Second, very few corporate CEOs ever endorse a Presidential candidate, so any implication that the rest of the Fortune 100 supports Kamala is false. Overwhelmingly, the corporate CEOs tell me privately that they support Trump, not Kamala. From Wikipedia, which is very left-leaning, here is a partial list of those who have publicly endorsed Trump: Steve Schwarzman is a de facto top 5 CEO, given that he controls $1 trillion in assets.”

— Elon Musk, 18 September 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Should AI be regulated?

“It’s a tough call. I’m far from certain about what maximizes the probability of a good outcome for humanity here. For industries that have been around for many decades, there is definitely far too much counterproductive regulation that does not serve the greater good.”

— Elon Musk, 12 September 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why are you involved in politics at all?

“That guy doesn’t get it. I would prefer to have zero involvement in politics. HOWEVER There is no “company success” unless civilization itself continues to progress. This insane shift by the “left” away from a meritocracy and personal liberties (eg censorship of free speech under the guise of “hate speech”) will be the end of civilization as we know it.”

— Elon Musk, 3 August 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why are birth rates falling?

“A declining birth rate happens towards the end of every civilization and is a function of extended prosperity. Caesar tried, and Augustus succeeded, in passing laws to encourage more children, but these were not enough.”

— Elon Musk, 30 July 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why do you need the Tesla pay package / more voting control?

“I am uncomfortable growing Tesla to be a leader in AI & robotics without having ~25% voting control. Enough to be influential, but not so much that I can’t be overturned. Unless that is the case, I would prefer to build products outside of Tesla. You don’t seem to understand that Tesla is not one startup, but a dozen. Simply look at the delta between what Tesla does and GM. As for stock ownership itself being enough motivation, Fidelity and other own similar stakes to me. Why don’t they show up for work?”

— Elon Musk, 15 January 2024 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Is health care a matter of money?

“People often incorrectly think health care is a matter of money, but it is actually a matter of doctors per capita. Unless there is a magic doctor factory somewhere, it takes ~30 years from birth to educate a doctor. So what will actually happen is a rapid decline in healthcare in California.”

— Elon Musk, 31 December 2023 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Diet Coke or Coke Zero?

“I would just like to thank the genius who came up with Diet Coke. Best drink ever. Coke Zero is a way better name, but I like the taste of Diet Coke slightly more.”

— Elon Musk, 23 August 2023 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What's your view on depression and SSRIs?

“Depression is overdiagnosed in the US, but for some people it really is a brain chemistry issue. But zombifying people with SSRIs for sure happens way too much. From what I’ve seen with friends, ketamine taken occasionally is a better option.”

— Elon Musk, 27 June 2023 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why let other car brands use Tesla Superchargers?

“Tesla aspires to be as helpful as possible to other car companies. We made all our patents freely available several years ago. Now, we are enabling other companies to use our Supercharger network. Also happy to license Autopilot/FSD or other Tesla technology.”

— Elon Musk, 5 June 2023 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Should AI be regulated?

“Met with @SenSchumer and many members of Congress about artificial intelligence regulation today. That which affects safety of the public has, over time, become regulated to ensure that companies do not cut corners. AI has great power to do good and evil. Better the former.”

— Elon Musk, 27 April 2023 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Should AI be regulated?

“I saw it happening from well before GPT-1, which is why I tried to warn the public for years. The only one on one meeting I ever had with Obama as President I used not to promote Tesla or SpaceX, but to encourage AI regulation.”

— Elon Musk, 16 April 2023 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Will Trump get a fair trial?

“To avoid losing the trust of the American public, it is important that our justice system pursue Democrats and Republicans with equal vigor. Whichever party most puts justice before nepotism is the one that deserves trust.”

— Elon Musk, 4 April 2023 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why does free speech matter so much to you?

“Free speech is the bedrock of democracy. It is a fundamental defense against autocracy & statism, which is why we must fight so hard to preserve it. The founders showed great wisdom, based on painful historical lessons, in passing the First Amendment.”

— Elon Musk, 18 February 2023 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Do you know what you're doing with Neuralink?

“Compared to AI, progress with Neuralink will be slow and easy to assess, as there is large regulatory apparatus approving medical devices. There is no regulatory oversight of AI, which is a *major* problem. I’ve been calling for AI safety regulation for over a decade!”

— Elon Musk, 1 December 2022 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What did Obama's DOJ conclude about the Ferguson shooting?

“According to Obama’s DoJ, the Ferguson shooting was unequivocally self-defense, so the Ferguson protests were – if you believe Obama’s DoJ – based on a false premise. That’s not to say that other injustices don’t occur, but this does not appear to be one of them. @CommunityNotes …”

— Elon Musk, 23 November 2022 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Do you still think we're approaching a recession?

“Yes, but this is actually a good thing. It has been raining money on fools for too long. Some bankruptcies need to happen. Also, all the Covid stay-at-home stuff has tricked people into thinking that you don’t actually need to work hard. Rude awakening inbound!”

— Elon Musk, 27 May 2022 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What do you mean by "free speech"?

“By “free speech”, I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law. If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.”

— Elon Musk, 26 April 2022 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Does negative news sell better?

“That’s true to some degree, but citizen podcasts that aren’t negative like Rogan, Fridman, Dodd, TED interviews, etc are very popular. Maybe part of why traditional media outlets are so negative is because old habits die hard? They so rarely even try to be positive.”

— Elon Musk, 7 February 2022 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Do you want to live forever?

“It is important for us to die because most of the time people don’t change their mind, they just die… If you live forever, we might become a very ossified society where new ideas cannot succeed. I certainly would like to maintain health for a longer period of time… But I am not afraid of dying. I think it would come as a relief.”

— Elon Musk, December 2021 · Business Insider ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What crypto do you own, and should people bet on it?

“Out of curiosity, I acquired some ascii hash strings called “Bitcoin, Ethereum & Doge”. That’s it. As I’ve said before, don’t bet the farm on crypto! True value is building products & providing services to your fellow human beings, not money in any form.”

— Elon Musk, 24 October 2021 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why do reusable rockets matter?

“Full & rapid reusability is the holy grail of orbital rocketry Starship is designed to be 100% reusable and ultimately be ready to refly within an hour of landing. This is the key to becoming a multiplanet civilization. No one would buy a single-use airplane, car or even bicycle! You’d need to tow another car just for the return trip 🤣”

— Elon Musk, 20 October 2021 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why build a humanoid robot?

“It needs to be able to do things that people do… It needs to be able to work with tools, carry a bag, that kind of thing. Tesla is arguably the world’s biggest robotics company because our cars are like semi-sentient robots on wheels…”

— Elon Musk, 19 August 2021 · Watch: Tesla video (2:08:00) ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

What does "the best part is no part" mean?

“We’re going to try to catch the Super Heavy Booster with the launch tower arm, using the grid fins to take the load. Saves mass & cost of legs & enables immediate repositioning of booster on to launch mount — ready to refly in under an hour. Legs would certainly work, but best part is no part, best step is no step.”

— Elon Musk, 30 December 2020 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why build a satellite internet network?

“We see this as a way for SpaceX to generate revenue that can be used to develop more and more advanced rockets and spaceships… We believe we can use the revenue from Starlink to fund Starship.”

— Elon Musk, 15 May 2019 · CNBC ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why do you work so much? How many hours is enough?

“There are way easier places to work, but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week. Varies per person, but about 80 sustained, peaking above 100 at times. Pain level increases exponentially above 80. But if you love what you do, it (mostly) doesn’t feel like work.”

— Elon Musk, 26 November 2018 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Is a journalist working with Tesla short-sellers?

“Sounds very sketchy if true. @lopezlinette, is it possible you’re serving as an inside trading source for one of Tesla’s biggest short-sellers? An ex-Tesla employee just went on record formally claiming you bribed him & he sent you valuable Tesla IP in exchange. Is this true?”

— Elon Musk, 5 July 2018 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why haven't Tesla's Fremont workers unionized?

“Also, UAW did nada for job security in last recession. Dropped Fremont like a hot potato to protect their core base in Detroit. UAW *chose* to exit this plant before Tesla even arrived. We had nothing to do with UAW leaving, but everything to do with why people here have jobs.”

— Elon Musk, 21 May 2018 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Should AI be regulated?

“AI is a fundamental existential risk for human civilization, and I don’t think people fully appreciate that… I think by the time we are reactive in AI regulation, it’s too late… I think people should be really concerned about it… I keep sounding the alarm bell.”

— Elon Musk, 15 July 2017 · Watch: Interview video ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why solar?

“People talk about fusion and all that, but the sun is a giant fusion reactor in the sky. It’s really reliable. It comes up every day. If it doesn’t, we’ve got bigger problems.”

— Elon Musk, 15 July 2017 · Watch: Interview video ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why are you digging tunnels?

“Traffic is driving me nuts. Am going to build a tunnel boring machine and just start digging... We’re trying to dig a hole under L.A. And this is to create the beginning of what will hopefully be a 3-D network of tunnels to alleviate congestion. …one of the most soul-destroying things is traffic.”

— Elon Musk, 17 December 2016 · Post on X ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Is AI dangerous?

“If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. So we need to be very careful with artificial intelligence. I’m increasingly inclined to think that there should be some regulatory oversight, maybe at the national and international level… With artificial intelligence we’re summoning the demon.”

— Elon Musk, 24 October 2014 · Watch: MIT AeroAstro Centennial Symposium ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why Mars?

“It’s the first time in four and a half billion years that we are at a level of technology where we have the ability to reach Mars. The sun is gradually expanding… the oceans will boil and there will be no meaningful life on Earth. …space travel is the best thing we can do to extend the life of humanity. I’d like to die on Mars, just not on impact.”

— Elon Musk, 9 March 2013 · Watch: SXSW video (42:36) ↗ · In the archive

Opinion

Why doesn't Tesla sell through dealerships?

“By the time most people decide to head to their local dealer, they have already pretty much decided what car they want to buy, which is usually the same make as their old car. Tesla, as a new carmaker, would therefore rarely have the opportunity to educate potential customers about Model S if we were positioned in typical auto dealer locations.”

— Elon Musk, 22 October 2012 · Archived copy ↗ · In the archive