- - Elon Musk, the World's Richest Person, Believes Retirement Savings 'Won't Matter' in an AI-Driven Future

Brian BrantJanuary 17, 2026 at 3:40 AM

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Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., during the US-Saudi Investment Forum at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. -

During a recent podcast appearance, Elon Musk said he believes that soon there won't be a need to save for retirement because of AI

He went on to claim that he's "confident by 2030 AI will exceed the intelligence of all humans combined"

The billionaire Tesla CEO's comments were made amid a wave of backlash over xAI's chatbot tool, Grok

Elon Musk says he believes saving money for retirement won't matter soon thanks to artificial intelligence.

Speaking on an episode of the Moonshots with Peter Diamandis podcast, which was released earlier this month, Musk argued there will be no need to "worry about, like, squirreling money away for retirement in 10 or 20 years" because it "won't matter."

“You won't need to save for retirement," said Musk, who is the world's richest person, according to lists by Forbes and Bloomberg, as well as the founder of xAI, going on to claim that "in the relatively near future, you could have whatever you want."

Siding with Musk's idyllic take, Diamandis claimed that theoretically, people would also already have a home, health care and entertainment to keep them busy with.

Although a fellow guest acknowledged that it's "fundamentally impossible" to predict exactly what AI will or won't be able to do in the future, Musk went on to reiterate his faith in artificial intelligence, saying he's "confident by 2030 AI will exceed the intelligence of all humans combined."

However, according to Business Insider, which interviewed 7 experts about Musk's claims, they all agreed that people shouldn't stop saving for retirement overnight.

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"Most Americans should absolutely ignore these comments," said Geoffrey Sanzenbacher, a research fellow at Boston College's Center for Retirement Research. "Musk's speculation sends a dangerous and misleading message."

Meanwhile, Ekaterina Abramova, a London Business School professor specializing in machine learning, said that while it's true that AI will "undoubtedly reshape" the world over the next 10-20 years, that won't magically result in needing to not save for retirement.

"A future of 'universal high income' would depend less on AI itself than on governments choosing to redistribute its gains generously and sustainably, across borders and amid inevitable social friction," she told the outlet.

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Of course, Musk hasn't been the only famous billionaire to weigh in on the various ways AI could impact the future.

During an appearance of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last year, Bill Gates said that he believed that soon humans won’t be needed “for most things.”

"The era we've come to is sort of the vision that computing was expensive and it basically became free,” said Gates, 70. “The era that we're just starting is that intelligence is rare, you know, a great doctor, a great teacher. And with AI, over the next decade, that will become free. Commonplace, you know? Great medical advice, great tutoring.”

“So I love the way it'll drive innovation forward, but I think it's a little bit unknown,” Gates said before posing a question many have kept asking about the technology: “Will we be able to shape it?”

"And so, legitimately, people are like, ‘Wow, this is a bit scary.’ It's completely new territory,” he said.

Musk's continued musings on AI also come amid a wave of backlash over xAI's chatbot tool, Grok.

Following the outcry, a statement posted on X earlier this week announced that Grok will no longer edit “images of real people in revealing clothing” on the social media platform and will "geoblock in jurisdictions where such content is illegal."

"We remain committed to making X a safe platform for everyone and continue to have zero tolerance for any forms of child sexual exploitation, non-consensual nudity, and unwanted sexual content," the statement read.

That same day, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced an investigation into the “proliferation of nonconsensual sexually explicit material produced using Grok.” UK regulator Ofcom has also launched its own investigation.

Additionally, Ashley St. Clair, the mother of Elon Musk's 14th child, has filed a lawsuit against xAI, which came amid an ongoing custody battle over their son.

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