Elon Musk makes surprise Davos debut in conversation with Larry Fink at WEF26

When Larry asked what success looks like 10 or 20 years from now, Elon said he doesn’t know what happens in a decade, but on AI, he’s more certain.

He said AI might be smarter than any individual human by the end of this year, and said he’s confident that by 2027, AI will be smarter than all humans combined.

Larry shifted to a personal note, asking Elon what inspired his career. Elon said as a kid he read a lot of science fiction, fantasy, and comic books.

He said he always liked tech, and though he never expected to end up where he is now, his goal has always been to make science fiction real, turning Star Trek into fact. He said he wants a real Starfleet, with giant ships exploring other planets and star systems.

He explained his drive comes from what he calls a “philosophy of curiosity.” He said he wants to understand the meaning of life, the structure of the universe, and whether the standard model of physics is correct about how the universe began and ends. He believes AI will help answer these questions.

Elon said he wonders what questions we’re not even smart enough to ask yet, and said he’s just trying to figure out what’s real, and if aliens exist. He said we might encounter long-dead alien civilizations if we reach other star systems.

Larry then asked if Elon plans to go to Mars himself. Elon said he probably would, then joked that he’s been asked if he wants to die on Mars and always answers, “Yes, just not on impact.”

He clarified that the trip takes six months, though launch windows only come every two years.

As the event wrapped, Larry called Elon a close friend and said he was constantly inspired by him. Elon ended by telling the audience to be optimistic, saying it’s better for quality of life to be “an optimist and wrong than a pessimist and right.”

Elon said China is deploying over 1,000 gigawatts of solar per year, with a production capacity of 1,500GW. When adjusted for steady output, that equals around 250GW, which is half of the entire US’s average power usage.

He said this makes solar the dominant energy source in China, and emphasized that solar is the source of almost all energy, on Earth or in space.

To illustrate, Elon said the Sun holds 99.8% of the mass of the solar system, while Jupiter is just 0.1%. Even if you burned multiple Jupiters in a reactor, it would still round up to 100% sun.

He said this is why SpaceX will start launching solar-powered AI satellites in a few years, as space has unlimited room and delivers 5x the energy output per solar panel compared to Earth.

Larry asked how much land the US would need to be fully solar-powered. Elon said a 100-mile by 100-mile area (160×160 km) would be enough to electrify the entire US, just a small corner of Utah, Nevada, or New Mexico.

For Europe, a few spots in Spain or Sicily would be enough. But in the US, he said solar deployment is held back by high tariffs, since China produces most of the world’s cheap solar panels.

To solve that, Elon said Tesla and SpaceX are both independently building up to 100GW per year of US-made solar power, a project that will take about three years. He encouraged others to do the same.

On robotics, Elon said the Tesla Optimus humanoid robot is already doing basic tasks in Tesla factories. By end of this year, he expects it to take on more complex jobs. By late 2027, Tesla plans to start selling robots to the public, once safety and reliability are proven.

He confirmed Tesla Full Self-Driving software is now updated weekly, and some insurers offer 50% off insurance for drivers using it because it’s so safe.

Elon said robotaxis are already active in a few cities, and expects them to be widespread across the US by year-end, with supervised FSD approval in Europe next month, and China soon after.

On space, Elon said SpaceX’s biggest goal this year is full rocket reusability with Starship, the biggest flying machine ever built. They’ve landed Falcon 9 booster stages over 500 times, but the upper stage still burns up.

Starship aims to reuse everything, cutting launch costs by 100x, from jet-sized budgets to under $100 per pound. He said Starship will support both Mars missions and bulk satellite launches.

Elon said he’s “very optimistic” and thinks we’re heading into a future of “amazing abundance.” He called it “the most interesting time in history.”

When Larry asked if aging could be reversed, Elon said he hasn’t spent much time on it but believes it’s “a very solvable problem.” He said once scientists figure out the cause, it’ll likely be obvious.

His reasoning: all cells in the human body age at the same rate, which implies a “synchronizing clock” controlling 35 trillion cells. He joked he’s never seen someone with an old left arm and a young right arm.

Elon added there might be some benefit to death, warning that living too long could “ossify society,” making it rigid and dull. Still, he said he thinks it’s “highly likely” we’ll figure out how to extend life or even reverse aging in the future.

Larry asked what the bottlenecks are to building a future full of AI models, autonomous machines, and rockets, all of which require huge increases in compute, energy, and manufacturing scale.

Elon said he believes the expansion of AI will be very broad because AI companies want as many users as possible. He pointed out that AI is already cheap, getting cheaper every month, and open-source models are nearly on par with closed ones.

But Elon also warned the real bottleneck for AI isn’t chips or fabs, it’s electricity. While AI chip production is growing exponentially, the growth rate for global electrical power is much slower, just 4-5% a year at best.

He said this mismatch means we may hit the limit as soon as this year, producing more AI chips than we can even turn on.

The only exception, Elon said, is China, which is rapidly scaling energy, especially nuclear. He said China is currently building 100 gigawatts of nuclear capacity.

Larry Fink opened by telling the room the applause was weak and asked them to do it again, then thanked everyone and said, “we’re going to make this interesting.” He asked how many quotes people would want after the session, got “5” as the answer, then greeted the audience and said it had been “an amazing week” in Davos.

Larry said the World Economic Forum is there to have conversations people will agree and disagree with, and said the goal is “understandings” and “resolution.” He pointed to “today’s result with a peace agreement earlier today” as part of why WEF exists.

Larry then introduced Elon Musk and said Elon came “all the way from California” to be there, and Elon replied, “You’re most welcome.” Elon joked about hearing the formation of a “Peace Summit” and asked if that was “P-I-E-C-E,” then said, “a little piece of Greenland, a little piece of Venezuela. We got one. All we want is peace.”

Larry said he’s been CEO of BlackRock since it went public and said BlackRock’s compounded return to shareholders has been 21%. He compared that to Tesla, saying since Elon took Tesla public, its compounded return has been 43%.

Larry called it an “advertisement,” especially aimed at Europeans, arguing more citizens should invest in growth and in their countries. He said if pension funds had invested with Elon when Tesla went public, the returns would have been huge for those funds “side by side with Elon and the growth.”

Larry called it a “spectacular return,” and said he doesn’t think there’s any other company as large as Tesla today with that compounded return. Elon said “thank you,” called it “a good measurement,” and credited “an incredible team at Tesla.”

Larry said he wanted to “get into the dirt” on technology and “the meaningful component” of what’s possible. He listed the areas he wanted to hit: AI, robotics, energy, space, and progress that comes down to “engineering discipline, scale, execution.”

He told Elon that few people have the experience and fortitude to confront these issues “head on,” not just ideas but execution across many technologies, and said that’s why he wanted this dialogue in Davos.

Larry then told Elon he’s building in AI, robotics, space, and energy all at the same time, and asked what those efforts have in common from an engineering standpoint.

Elon said they’re all “very difficult technology challenges,” then said the overall goal of his companies is to “maximize the future of civilization,” meaning maximizing the probability civilization has a great future, and to “expand consciousness beyond Earth.”