Elon Musk says money will stop mattering by 2036, once robots and artificial intelligence produce more goods and services than people can consume.
Key Takeaways
Elon Musk told The Economist money will not matter by 2036 as artificial intelligence (AI) and robots outproduce demand.Critics including Tyler Cowen argue energy, land, and attention will stay scarce even by 2036.Musk called the shift bumpy, pointing to income transfers as the likely next policy fight.“You want money for food, housing, transport, entertainment,” Musk said. “If that is so abundant, what do you need money for in that case?”
He predicted deflation rather than inflation, arguing output would outrun the money supply as robots and AI take over production. He also suggested governments could simply issue checks to citizens once goods become abundant enough.
A Prediction With a HistoryMusk has pointed to Iain M. Banks’ Culture novels as a model for what a positive AI future looks like. In those books, advanced machine intelligences called Minds handle production and logistics, citizens face no material want, and money is treated as a marker of poverty rather than a tool. SpaceX names its drone ships after vessels from the series.
Economists Question the TimelineCritics have also raised governance questions. If a small number of companies own the robots and the energy infrastructure that powers them, distributing the resulting abundance does not happen automatically. Tesla’s own valuation, built partly on Optimus robot ambitions, still depends on investors who expect returns paid in the currency Musk says will soon matter less.
Why It Matters Falling prices for goods and services tied to automated production Growing pressure on governments to fund large-scale income transfers A shift in where scarcity and value concentrate, toward energy, land, and attention rather than manufactured goodsMusk has acknowledged the transition will be “bumpy” and could bring social strain as jobs disappear faster than new roles replace them. That acknowledgment sits closer to what past waves of automation have actually produced: uneven gains, real disruption, and institutions forced to adapt under pressure rather than a clean shift to abundance for everyone at once.
Money functions as a way to coordinate trade-offs under scarcity. Robots assembling houses or generating entertainment do not remove every scarce resource. Energy, land, political power, and genuine novelty stay limited. Whatever system allocates them will still need a pricing signal, whether or not it goes by the name money.
