US-Saudi Investment Forum

But right now, we're here to celebrate a historic moment.

A moment that yesterday during the dinner, and thank you for for joining us under the patronage of the honorable president and his royal highness the crown prince Musaeed where we had the pleasure to hear firsthand, this is the greatest alliance between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States where we have joined hands and you have helped us build our energy-based economy fueling and energizing the industrial age and now fast forward going to the intelligence age where we can fuel AI factories, robotics, EAVs and all of the rest.

Speaking of that, let's start with you Elon if you don't mind Jensen, feel free to chime in. You have a big fascination of something all of us have admired, first-order thinking. Which Jensen sometimes calls first-order scaling.

Which is an opportunity for you how you have dropped the cost of batteries from a thousand for kilowatt hour to sub-hundred bucks and right now you're doing the same thing with robotics for actuators with servo rotors and motors. So I want to hear from you how do you manage to always disrupt every single industry with that thinking? Well, it's mostly not uh disruption, it's uh creation.

So with uh say SpaceX with uh reusable rockets, uh there really weren't any reusable rockets. Um but the essence of getting uh of revolutionizing space travel is reusability. If you throw the rocket away every time, the cost of access to space is extremely high. Um with respect to electric cars, there there weren't any electric cars when we started making them really. They you couldn't buy any to the best of my knowledge.

Um so with Tesla we wanted to make electric cars compelling um and affordable. That was the goal. Um the uh you know, with respect to humanoid robotics, there are no useful humanoid robotics robots at this point. Um they're are sort of gimmicks, but they're not there are no actually useful humanoid robots. Um and I think Tesla's going to make the first actually useful humanoid robots.

Um and this will be quite a revolution and I think something that will that everyone will want uh because I always think of like who who wouldn't want their own personal C-3PO R2-D2? Oh, yeah? Of course. Everyone would want one. Right? And and then there would be many in industry uh providing products and services. This is why I say that humanoid robots will be the biggest industry or the biggest product ever.

Um bigger than cell phones or anything else because everyone's going to want one. And uh or maybe more than one more than one and there'll be many in industry. Um I just want R2-D2 in C-3PO's body. Yeah. There you go. >> Um >> [laughter] >> well, I mean a humanoid robot will be better than R2-D2 and C-3PO combined. Yeah. Times 10. Yeah.

So the it and and you know, people often talk about uh sort of eliminating poverty and that kind of thing, but really the the how long have they been talking about that? Um the the lots of talk uh you know, there's lots of NGOs sort of trying to do these things, but but really not succeeding. Um and and and you know, the evidence speaks for itself. Uh but but but AI and humanoid robots will actually eliminate poverty.

And Tesla won't be the only one that makes them. I think Tesla will pioneer this, but there will be many other companies that make humanoid robots. But there there is only basically one way to uh make everyone wealthy and that is AI and robotics. And we can't talk about robotics without AI factories.

And yesterday was such a historic day for the two nations, but also for all of us where we celebrate the AI strategic partnership with the US signed witnessed by the honorable president and his royal highness about how we are committing our capital, energy, land to energize the AI US ecosystem to be able to build inference know training nodes and to be the most AI-enabled nation.

With that announcement, tell me what's what's next in AI factories Jensen? There there's a there's a beautiful story about how Saudi Arabia's building AI refineries and now building AI factor or oil refineries to AI factories. >> I love that. Uh you know, I've said that that AI is an infrastructure and the reason for that is of course, we understand AI from the perspective of the technology and how it's revolutionizing every industry.

Digital intelligence of course has applications into every every field. And so it's going to be used by every company, every industry, every country. In that way, it's foundational and therefore it's part of infrastructure. What is new about AI from a computer science perspective is that the way computing was done in the past was largely retrieval-based computing.

Somebody typed in a story or somebody created a a piece of art or came came up with four versions of a digital ad or it's all pre-built by somebody which is then using a system to retrieve the appropriate version for you. It's a retrieval-based computing model. Hadoop and many of the the the frameworks and operating systems of the past all designed to retrieve the appropriate information for you.

But today software is going to be generated in real time. It's generative. Based on the context, based on the circumstance, based on who you are, based on the problem you asked that based on your prompt it will generate unique content for you every single time for everybody it's unique. When you use Grok, every time you use it is different.

It's all based on the right based on based on the based on the prompt that you give it and based on the circumstance and and so therefore it used to be retrieval-based today it's generative. And if it's generative then and every time is different, then you need AI factories all over the world to generate the content in real time. Which is the reason why you need AI factories.

And and this is a unique way of doing computation, but the benefit of course is that everything isn't preconceived and pre-documented and it's it's a contextually contextually sensible and and and therefore intelligent. So AI factories and robotics, and we heard it yesterday from his royal highness his vision how to augment our workforce with roughly tens of millions of robotics to be able to infuse the next wave of productivity and progress.

But this cares a lot of folks here when it comes to the future of jobs. So let's hear about your thoughts Elon and Jensen on that. Uh sure. Well um say like in the long term where will things end up long term? I don't know what long term is. Maybe it's 10, 20 years, something like that. For me that's long term. Um my prediction is that work will be optional. Optional. Optional. Um so We'll take that. Yeah.

I mean it it'll be like uh playing sports or video game or something like that. Um if you want to work, uh you know, in the same way like you can you can go to the store and just buy some vegetables or you could grow vegetables in your backyard. It's much harder to grow vegetables in your backyard, but some people still do it because they like growing growing vegetables. Um that will be what work is like, optional.

Um and between now and then there's actually a lot of work to get to that point. Mhm. Um I always recommend people read read Ian Banks uh Culture books to get a sense for what a a probable positive AI future is like. Um and interestingly in those books, money is no longer doesn't exist.

It's kind of interesting and I I my guess is and and if you go out long enough assuming there's a continued improvement in AI and robotics which this seems likely the money will will will stop being relevant at some point in the future. Um the the will still be constraints on power like in it like electricity and mass. Uh the fundamental physics elements will still be like still be constraints.

Um but um I think at some point uh currency becomes irrelevant. Jensen, any thoughts? Um cool >> [laughter] >> By the way, there's Nvidia earnings calls later today. >> [laughter] >> And by the way, since currency is irrelevant Cheers. [laughter] Elon just wants to share with you some [laughter] breaking news. >> [laughter] >> The two of us would like to share some breaking news. Uh Let's see.

I I would say I would say there there's um uh different horizons you could look at. Everybody's jobs will be different. That I think that that's for sure. Uh how how will the students learn will be different. Um how people do their work will be different obviously because a lot of the things that that we do mundanely or arduously or very difficultly are going to be done very simply.

And And so, we're going to be more productive from that sense from that sense. One of the things that I will say is that for most people or company, if some if your life becomes more productive, and if the things that you're doing uh with great difficulty become simpler, it is very likely because you have so many ideas, you'll have more time to go pursue things. It is my guess that Elon will be busier as a result of AI.

I'm going to be busier as a result of AI. And the reason for that is because we have so many ideas we want to pursue, so many things that that we still have in our backlog inside our company that we can go pursue. If we were more productive, we can get to those things faster. And so, in the near term, I would say that that there's every evidence that that we will be more productive and yet still be busier because we have so many ideas.

One thing that I will say and give you give you some evidence is that and I was just telling Elon about this earlier, radiology for example, has largely been converted to AI-driven radiology and there's some really great companies doing that. And the surprising thing is the prediction that all radiologists would be the first jobs to go was exactly the opposite. The trend shows that there are more radiologists being hired now as a result of AI.

And the reason for that, if you take a step back, it's because the goal of a radiologist is not to study the images. The goal of a radiologist is to diagnose a disease.

Now the studying of the images became so productive, they could study more images, study more modalities, spend more time with the patients, and as a result, they're actually accepting more patients or doing more radiology all around the world, we're doing a better job with diagnosing disease. And so, that's that's kind of the the near-term near-term outcome of uh AI and productivity. And And we'll see we'll see what happens long term.

You know, I I When when currency doesn't matter anymore, just you know, let me know right before. You'll see it coming. >> [laughter] >> You'll see it coming. We text often, so just just Yeah, we do. Yeah, just text it out. Yeah, let me know >> of I kind of agree with with both of you because if you look at every technological trend, every general-purpose technology has been net new positive for for the globe, for humanity, and so forth.

And let me share with you two case studies. Your Excellency, I think it's precisely the reason the reason for that is because all the great ideas from from innovators like Elon you have so many good ideas that AI >> as well. Yeah, well, you know, thank you. So, let me share share with you two stories from two Saudi innovators in collaboration with a lot of great the great work that Nvidia does, that Grok does. One is Professor Omar Yaghi.

Say that again. Professor Omar Yaghi, I might need to I might need to move the mic. Yeah, come on, we'll share this one. >> [laughter] >> Get closer. Let's let's let's try this one more time. So, one of them is Professor Omar Yaghi, who's the first American Saudi to win a Nobel Prize in creating new chemistry.

And the way he has done that, he has leveraged you AI accelerators and models like Grok to be able to create new chemistry when it comes to metal-organic frameworks. Those are metal ions, they're positively charged with organic linkers to be able to effectively create a sponge with 0. 33 nanometers pores to capture water from air and also to capture carbon dioxide.

The second story has also to do with AI accelerated by Nvidia and with models like Grok, which is Nanopam, which is effectively creating a nanorobot 500 nanometers by 1,000 nanometers to be able to do gene editing leveraging the CRISPR technology to take out sickle cell disease.

Now, in both these instances, they originated 20 years ago in research, but AI was able to really accelerate the outcomes and the outputs such that we can move into new value So, I think with every technological trend, humanity is going to always manage to shift to new value pools when it comes to workforce and productivity. But we have some great announcements to talk about here today.

Let's begin with you, Elon, the things that we're doing with xAI. Uh yeah, we're excited to announce that um we're doing a a a uh a 500 megawatt I mean, yeah, 500 Sorry. 500 megawatt? 500 megawatt, yeah. >> [laughter] >> WE'RE DOING 500 MEGAWATT. SORRY, THIS YEAH, YEAH, NO, IT'S 500 gigawatt, one will have to wait. Um So, um That that that'll be 8 Brazilian trillion dollars. Um >> [laughter] >> Stop that.

Uh >> [laughter] >> So, yeah, we we're we're doing a um uh xAI and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are doing a a >> Humane? 500 megawatts starting with 50 megawatts phase one, and we're doing it with Nvidia. Congratulations to the Humane team, to Targ and team, such a fantastic job. Jensen, I think we're also doing some great announcements uh this week. We are. >> [laughter] >> What we're we're announcing we're announcing all kinds of things.

Um our partnership with Humane is is going incredibly well. First of all, we we work together to get this company started and off the ground. And just got an incredible customer with Elon. Uh could you imagine a startup company approximately zero billion dollars in revenues now going to build a data center for Elon. 500 megawatts is gigantic. This company is off the charts right away.

In addition to that, we're working working AWS, as you know, is also coming >> Congratulations to the Humane team with the AWS starting with 100 megawatts with a gigawatt ambition and counting. So, AWS is also coming to Humane. We're working with Humane on Omniverse digital twins.

As you know, that AI is not just well, just agentic AI and chatbots and cognitive AI is incredibly important to the world, but AI applies to everything, chemicals and proteins and genes and physics and fluid dynamics and particles and of course robotics and activation. And we created this world called Omniverse where robots can learn how to be good robots.

And And it's physically based, it obeys the laws of physics, and so robots can learn in these environments, and we're working with Humane to apply Omniverse to all kinds of digital factories and robotics and warehouses and things like that. And so, that's that's another. We're we're also working in Saudi Arabia to build supercomputers to simulate quantum computers.

And And using our computers to be the controller and the error correction one quantum error correction requires an enormous amount of computation, and so so we're doing a lot of great work there, too. So, a big partnership with Humane, they're off the charts off the ground and off the charts at the same time. >> This is how we walk the talk in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in partnership with the US.

Yesterday, the president and His Royal Highness announced the AI strategic framework and partnership. Today, we're going big with Elon and Jensen. So, thank you for those opportunities. >> [applause] >> Now, they they told me I have time for two last questions. So, last night at the dinner, I got a number of questions because it seems that the schedule leaked, and everybody was giving me hints about the last two questions I'm going to do.

So, the first one was for you, Elon. And there's a big one for you, Jensen, so prepare for that one. AI in space, is that possible? Uh yes, if if civilization continues, which it probably will, uh then AI in space is inevitable. Um >> [laughter] >> You know, I always have to like preface that, you know. We shouldn't take civilization for granted. We we need to make sure to take care to ensure that civilization has an an upward arc.

I mean, any student of history knows that civilization does not always have an upward arc. And in fact, civilizations have life life cycles. So, hopefully we are in a strong upward arc. I think we are for now. Um but we don't want to take that for granted or be complacent.

Um but the in order to The way to think of AI in space is that in order to achieve any meaningful percentage of a Kardashev two scale civilization where you're using even a millionth a millionth uh of the sun's energy, you must have solar-powered AI satellites in in deep space.

Um So, so that once you realize like once you think in terms of a Kardashev two scale civilization, which is what what percentage of the sun's energy are you turning into useful work, um then you then it becomes obvious that space is overwhelmingly what matters. Overwhelmingly. The The sun only receives one roughly one two billionth of The Earth only receives roughly uh one two billionth of the sun's energy.

So, if you want to have something that is say, a million times more energy than Earth could possibly produce, you must go into space. It's and and so, um yeah, this is where it's kind of handy to have a space company, I guess. Um sell the book, I guess you could say. >> cool chips in space, too. Yes. Easier to cool chips in space. Yeah. Yes, there's definitely no water in space, so you're going to have to do something Yeah.

uh that doesn't involve water. Just hang out. Well, it's it's you just got to radiate. That's right. Um so, my my estimate is that actually that that that the cost of of electricity like like the the cost effectiveness of AI in space will be overwhelmingly better than AI on the ground.

So, far long before you uh exhaust potential energy sources on on Earth, long long before, meaning like I think even perhaps in the 4 or 5-year time frame, the lowest cost way to do AI compute will be with solar-powered AI satellites. So, I'd say not more than 5 years from now. Wow. And just look at the supercomputers we're building together. Let's say each one of the racks is 2 tons. Out of that 2 tons, 1. 95 of it is probably for cooling.

Right. Oh, yeah. Just imagine how tiny that little supercomputer is, right? Each one of these GB300 racks will just be a little tiny thing. And and just electricity generation is is already becoming a challenge. Um so, if if you if you start doing any kind of scaling for both electricity generation and cooling, um you realize, okay, space is incredibly compelling.

Um so, like let's say you wanted to do uh I don't know, 2 or 300 gigawatts per year. Um of of uh AI compute. Yeah. Um it's very difficult to do that on Earth. Uh the so, the the uh US average electricity usage uh last time I checked was around 460 gigawatts per year average usage. Um so, so something like say, uh you know, a three a three if you're doing 300 gigawatts a year, that would be like 2/3 of US electricity production per year.

There's no way you're building power plants at that level. Um and then if you take it up to say a terawatt per year, impossible. Yeah. Like you have to do that in space. There there just is there there there just is no way to do a terawatt uh per year on Earth. Um and and and in space, you've got continuous solar. Um you've got uh you don't you you actually don't need batteries cuz it's always sunny in space. >> Right. Exactly.

>> Um and um and and the solar panels actually become cheaper cuz you don't need glass or framing. Um and the cooling is just radiative. So, that's that's why I think >> That's the dream. Yes. That's the dream. So, Jensen, everybody last night was asking me, and I'm mindful it's uh earnings uh call for you today. So, I'm going to say this delicately. Everybody has been asking me to ask you, are we going to have an AI bubble?

>> [laughter] >> That's the last question. All right, let's go. All right, let me say Well, let me just say you what we see. Okay, so so I I think it's really important when you look at what's happening around the world and go back to first principles of what's happening in computer science and computing. There are three things that are that's happening.

The first thing is that we all know that Moore's law has run its course, and the ability the demand of demand for computing versus the amount of computation we can get out of general-purpose computing is really challenging. And so, the world's been moving to accelerated computing for some time. We've been pushing this now for some over 20 years. Let me give you one statistic. I was just at supercomputing.

Six years ago, uh CPUs were 90% of the world's supercomputers, top 500 supercomputers, 6 years ago. This year, less than 15%. Went from 90% to 10%, and meanwhile, accelerated computing went from the other way, 10% to now 90%. Okay, so you're seeing that inflection point, the transition in high-performance computing from general-purpose computing to accelerated computing.

Well, one of the one of the most data-intensive, one of the most intensive computation things that the world does in cloud is data processing. Several hundred billion dollars of computation is done on just raw data processing. Had nothing to do with AI. Just SQL processing, data frames, you know, everybody's names, address, their their sex, their their age, where they live, you know, how much money they make.

All of that sits into a data frame, and that data frame drives the world today, whether it's in banking or, you know, whether it's in credit cards or, of course, e-commerce and uh everything from ad recommendation, everything is driven off of that data frame. That data frame costs hundreds of billions of dollars to go compute. And so, that's the number one thing, end of Moore's law. The second thing is generative AI.

What the the the most important application of the last 15 years is called Rexis, recommender systems. How do we know what information to recommend to us uh in a social feed? How do you know what ad to recommend to somebody, uh what book to recommend, what movie to recommend? The world is the internet is so gigantic without a recommender system that little tiny of us would have no chance of ever seeing the right information.

That Rexis is the engine of the internet today. That's going generative AI. It used to be running on CPUs, now runs on GPUs. Which then says the third thing, when if you just look at those two applications, many of the internet companies can build enormous number of GPU supercomputers just doing that. Of course, then it creates this the third opportunity on top of it, which is agentic AI.

This is Grok, and this is OpenAI, this is Anthropic, you know, this is Gemini. Agentic AI sits on top of that. But don't, you know, don't forget to think about what is happening above, underneath what everybody sees as AI today. There's a whole movement of computing from general-purpose computing to accelerated computing.

And that, if you just if you take that into consideration, you'll come to the conclusion that in fact, what is left over to fuel that revolutionary agentic AI is not only substantially less than you thought, and all of it justified. Well, I was just informed by the team that my boss and your bosses is going to talk next, the honorable president and his royal highness the crown prince, and hence we ran out of time.

But in essence, >> [applause] >> this is our such so much love for you, Elon and and Jensen. But this in essence is a 92 alliance that shifted from energy to digital to the intelligence age, powered by pioneers such as Elon and Jensen, to serve humanity and create on a net new basis new economies, new jobs, and a better future for humanity, powered by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States.

Thank you for our lifetime partnership and friendship. Thank you, Elon. Thank you, Jensen. Thank you. >> [applause] >> All right.