Elon Musk: Money will disappear, and work will become a hobby

At the U.S.–Saudi Arabia Investment Forum, Elon Musk once again outlined a future in which the economic system we know simply ceases to exist. He did so while sitting next to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang — the person currently earning more from AI than anyone else on the planet.

“Currency Will Become Irrelevant”

Musk stated that a moment would eventually come when money no longer mattered. He argued that only physical constraints such as electricity, materials, and energy would remain, while the very concept of currency would become useless.

He referred again to his favorite book series — Iain Banks’s Culture novels — which describe a post-scarcity society governed by superintelligent AI. He said that anyone who wanted to understand what a positive AI-driven future might look like should read Banks, since he considered it the most accurate depiction.

Work as Gardening

In Musk’s vision, labor would turn into a voluntary pastime. He suggested imagining someone growing tomatoes in their backyard — a process more expensive and more complicated than buying tomatoes in a store, yet people still do it simply because they enjoy it. He said that this was what work would eventually become: a completely optional hobby.

Optimus as the Key to Ending Poverty

A month earlier, at a Tesla shareholder meeting, Musk had been even more specific. He told attendees that discussions about eliminating poverty and ensuring universal access to healthcare and education all pointed to a single solution — the Optimus robot.

According to him, once billions of humanoid robots performed all physical labor, production would become nearly costless. Instead of a universal basic income (UBI), society would shift to what he called a “universal high income,” meaning that everyone would be able to obtain virtually any goods or services.

“There Will Be a Lot of Pain Along the Way”

Musk acknowledged that the transition would be painful, full of instability and disruption. But he said that, in an optimistic scenario, humanity would end up with a society where everyone lived in abundance.

A Final Toast with Nvidia’s CEO

After finishing his remarks about the obsolescence of money, Musk turned to Huang and pointed out that Nvidia was due to release its earnings report that same day. Huang, smiling, replied that if currency was no longer important, then the report hardly mattered. The two — whose companies are now worth trillions thanks to AI — clinked bottles of Acqua Panna water.

Summary

Elon Musk believes that within one or two decades, AI and robotics — especially Tesla’s Optimus — will create such abundance that money and mandatory work will disappear. A “universal high income” will replace traditional UBI, and labor will become an optional hobby, much like gardening. Although the transition will be difficult, Musk argues that humanity will ultimately reach the post-scarcity society envisioned in Iain Banks’s novels. Even Nvidia’s CEO, whose company currently thrives on selling AI chips, appeared ready to toast a future without money.