Qatar Economic Forum 20 mai 2025 Une interview Bloomberg de près de 40 minutes au Qatar Economic Forum : l'avenir de Musk chez Tesla, son retrait de la politique, la querelle OpenAI/Altman et une possible entrée en Bourse de Starlink.
Une interview Bloomberg de près de 40 minutes au Qatar Economic Forum : l'avenir de Musk chez Tesla, son retrait de la politique, la querelle OpenAI/Altman et une possible entrée en Bourse de Starlink.
Transcription Elon Musk
Hey, this is David Papadopoulos, host of Elon Inc. We have for you this week our interview in Qatar that our colleague Michelle Hussain did with Elon himself. Here is that interview in its entirety right now. And you should also know that our episode, our Elon Inc. Episode this week is all about me and Max breaking down the interview and dissecting it, the highlights, the lowlights, etc. Etc.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Enjoy. Hello, everyone. And Elon Musk. Welcome to Qatar Economic Forum. How are you?
Elon Musk
Thank you for having me. I'm fine. How are you?
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Very well, thank you, and very pleased to have you with us. You know, among those here in the audience in Doha are some, you will know, people who have backed you financially over the years. Since you last spoke here in 2022, a lot has changed in your life. You're not only running multiple companies. You were doing that then, but now you also have a role in government. So, first of all, I hope you won't mind if from time to time I have to move you from one topic to another, because we have a lot to cover in the time we have. That will be all right. Okay. Well, let's start then with exactly the fact that you now have this combination of being a CEO and having a role as a government advisor. Tell me about your week. How does it work? What's the split of your time?
Elon Musk
Well, I travel a lot, so I was in Silicon Valley yesterday morning. I was in LA yesterday evening. I'm in Austin right now. I'll be in D.C. tomorrow. I'll be there having dinner with the President tomorrow night, I believe, and then a whole bunch of Cabinet secretary meetings and then back to Silicon Valley on Thursday night.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
But, I mean, the balance of your time, is it. Is it. Well, clearly it's a lot. But is it still the case, as you said a while ago, that it's about one to two days a week on your government work?
Elon Musk
Yeah, that's correct.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
And what does that mean for your corporate life? Because if we start with Tesla, the company has suffered in recent months what you've called blowback. So what is your plan for turning that around? The declining sales picture. And by what stage do you think you're going to be able to turn it around?
Elon Musk
Oh, it's already turned around.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Give me some evidence for that. I've just been looking at the sales figures for Europe in April, which show very significant declines in the big markets.
Elon Musk
Europe is our weakest market. We're strong everywhere else, so our sales are doing well. At this point. We don't anticipate any meaningful sales shortfall. And the, you know, obviously the stock market recognizes that since we're now back over a trillion dollars in market cap. So clearly the market is aware of the situation. So it's already turned around, but sales
Qatar Forum Interviewer
still down compared to this time last year
Qatar Forum Interviewer
In Europe. Okay.
Elon Musk
And yes, but that's, that's true of, of all manufacturers. There's no exceptions.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Does that mean that you're not going
Elon Musk
to be able, does that mean weak?
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Okay, but you would acknowledge, wouldn't you, that what you are facing. Okay, let's just take it as Europe, what you are facing is a significant problem. This Tesla is an incredibly aspirational brand. People identified with it, it saw it, they saw it as being at the forefront of the climate crisis. And now people are driving around with stickers in their car saying I bought this before we knew Elon was crazy.
Elon Musk
And there are also people by buying it because Elon's crazy or however they may view it. So yes, we've lost some sales perhaps on the left, but we've gained them on the right. The sales numbers at this point are strong and we see no problem with demand. So what I mean you can just look at the stock price if you want the best insider information the stock market analysts have. That and stock wouldn't be trading near all time highs if it was not if things weren't in good shape. They're fine. Don't worry about it.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Okay. I was citing sales figures rather than share price. Well, tell me then how committed you are to Tesla. Do you see yourself and are you committed to still being the chief executive of Tesla in five years time? Yes, no doubt about that at all.
Elon Musk
Well, no, I might die.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Okay.
Elon Musk
Short of that, let me see if I'm dead. So there's a slight amount.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Does that mean that the value of your pay doesn't have any bearing on your decision?
Elon Musk
Well, that's not really a subject. Subject discussion in this forum. The. I think obviously there should be conversation for if there's, if something incredible is done, that compensation should match that something incredible was done. But I'm confident that whatever the, whatever some activist posing as a judge in Delaware happens to do will not affect the future compensation.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
This is the judge who twice struck down the $56 billion pay package that was, that was awarded to you. I think the value on the basis on the current value of stock options. Yeah.
Elon Musk
Not a judge. Not a judge. The activist who is cosplaying a judge in a Halloween costume.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Okay, that, that's your characterization I think the value on the current value of stock options, I think the actual justice,
Elon Musk
according to the law, on the current
Qatar Forum Interviewer
value of stock options, I think the value of that pay package stands at about $100 billion. Are you saying you are relaxed about the value of your future pay package? Your decision to be committed to Tesla for the next five years, as long as you are still with us on this planet, is completely independent of pay?
Qatar Forum Interviewer
it's not independent. So pay is a relevant factor then, to your commitment to Tesla?
Elon Musk
Sufficient voting control such that I cannot be ousted by activist investors is what matters to me. And I've said this publicly many times, but let's not have this whole thing be a discussion of mileage pay. It's not a money thing. It's a reasonable control thing over the future of the company. Especially if we're building millions, potentially billions of humanoid robots. I can't be sitting there and wondering, get tossed out by for political reasons by activists. That would be unacceptable. That's all that matters now. Let's move on.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Okay, well, just one question. Well, one question before we move on to other companies, which is that I wonder if some of what has happened to Tesla in the last few months. Did you take it personally?
Qatar Forum Interviewer
And did it make you regret any of or think twice about your political endeavors? Because it is.
Elon Musk
I did what needed to be done. The violent antibody reaction. And I'm not someone who's ever committed violence. And yet massive violence was committed against my companies. Massive violence was threatened against me. Who are these people? Why would they do that? How wrong can they be? They're on the wrong side of history. And that's an evil thing to do. To go and damage some poor innocent person's car, to threaten to kill me. What's wrong with these people? I've not harmed anyone. So something needs to be done about them. And a number of them are going to prison. And they deserve it.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
You're referring to the attacks on Tesla showrooms.
Elon Musk
But I think bullets into showrooms and burning down cars is unacceptable. Those people will go to prison. And the people that funded them and organized them will also go to prison. Don't worry, we're coming for you.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
But wouldn't, wouldn't you acknowledge that some of the people who turned against Tesla in Europe were upset at your politics? And very few of them would have been violent in any way. They just objected to what they saw you say or do politically?
Elon Musk
Well, it's certainly fine to object to political things, but it's not fine to resort to Violence and hanging someone in effigy and death threats, that's obviously not okay. You know, that's absurd. That is in no way justifiable at all in any way, shape or form. And some of the legacy media nonetheless have sought to justify it, which is unconscionable. Shame on them.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Let's talk about your other companies then in other business areas. Space X. I saw that you said in a speech at the West Point Point Military Academy recently that the future of warfare is AI and drones and obviously defense is an increasingly booming sector with the state of the world at the moment. Do you see Space X moving into weaponized drones?
Elon Musk
You certainly ask interesting questions that are impossible to answer. So SpaceX is, it's the space launch leader. So SpaceX doesn't do drones. SpaceX builds rockets, satellites and Internet terminals. So SpaceX has, has a, a pretty dominant position in space launch. So I've of the mass launch to orbit this year, SpaceX will probably do 90%. China will do the remain half, half of the remaining amount. So 5%. And the rest of the world, including the rest of the US will do about 5%. So SpaceX will do about 10 times as much as the rest of world combined or 20 times as much as China, which is, and China is doing actually a very impressive job. The reason for this is that we are putting into into orbit the largest satellite constellation the world has ever seen by far. So I think at this point about maybe approaching 80% of all active satellites in orbit are SpaceX and they're providing global, high, high bandwidth, global connectivity throughout the world. In fact this connection is on the SpaceX connection. So I think this is a very good thing because it means that we can provide low cost, my bandwidth Internet to parts of the world that don't have it or it's very expensive. And I think the single biggest thing you can do to lift people out of poverty and help them is giving them an Internet connection. Because once you have the Internet connection you can learn anything for free on the Internet and you can also sell your goods and services to the global market. And once you have knowledge by the Internet and the ability to engage in commerce, the that this is going to greatly improve quality of life for people throughout the world. And it has. And I'd just like to thank anyone in the audience who may have been helpful in, you know, with Starlink and getting it approved in their country. And I think it's doing a lot of good and the countries that have approved it, which is, I think at this point 130 countries are very happy with it. I don't currently anticipate SpaceX getting into the weapons business. That's certainly. It's not an aspiration. We're frequently, frequently asked to do, to do weapons programs, but we have thus far declined.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Do you envisage Space X or indeed Starlink as a separate entity, publicly listing in the near future or at all?
Elon Musk
It's possible that Starlink may go public at some point in the future.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
And what would be the time frame? What kind of time frame you consider.
Elon Musk
I mean, no rush. No, I'm in a rush. To go public is, I guess, a way to potentially make more money, but at the expense of a lot of public company overhead and inevitably a whole bunch of lawsuits which are very annoying. So really something needs to be done about the shareholder derivative lawsuits in the US because it allows plaintiffs law firms who don't represent the shareholders to pretend that they represent the shareholders by getting a puppet plaintiff with a few shares to initiate a massive lawsuit against the company. And the irony being that extreme irony, that even if the class they purport to represent were to vote that they don't want the lawsuit, the lawsuit would still continue. So how can it be a class action representing a class if the class vote against it? And that's the bizarre situation we've got in the US that needs, it's a dire need of reform, as anyone who's running a public company experienced this. It's an absurd situation that needs to change.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Well, do you think Donald Trump might change it? You've certainly got his ear. I imagine that you've put this to him. Is this something you're trying to change before any starlink ipo?
Elon Musk
Well, it would need a law to be passed. The trouble being that you need 60 senator senate votes and the Democrats will vote against it. The, the, the, the, the plaintiff bar is I believe, the second largest contributor to the Democratic Party. That's the, that's the issue. At the state level. This can be solved. And, and I should say Texas recently passed a law which at this, at least the state level made much more reasonable because you have to get at least one in 33 shareholders to agree that they are part of a class of shareholders. 3%. This is, will be really help with frivolous lawsuits.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Okay, let's talk about AI, which is in so many of your businesses and in all our worlds in different ways. It's one of the big changes, the development of generative AI. Since you last spoke to this forum three years ago, you're in this space, of course, with grok, which almost everyone will know, you co founded Open AI and then left. And you've obviously got a legal battle with OpenAI and Sam Altman. I wonder if you could say something about the status of that because you were together in Saudi Arabia with the President last week with Sam Altman in
Elon Musk
the same place at the same time in the neighborhood.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Does that mean you are pushing ahead with the lawsuit against OpenAI?
Elon Musk
Yes. So I came up with the name OpenAI as an open source and as a non profit. And I funded AI OpenAI for the first roughly $50 million. And it was intended to be a non profit, open source company and now is. They're trying to change that for their own financial benefit into a for profit company that is closed source. So this would be like, let's say you, you funded a nonprofit to help preserve the Amazon rainforest, but instead of doing that, they became a lumber company, chopped down the forest and sold the wood. You'd be like, wait a second, that's not what I funded. That's open air.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
They've made some changes to their corporate structure though, haven't they, since in recognition of what you've said and no, that's
Elon Musk
just what they told the media.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Okay. They have part. They have partly walked back their plan to restructure the business. I guess that's made no difference to how you feel about it. So you determined to see them in court?
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Okay, well that's, that's certainly going to be one to watch. I also wanted to ask you about AI and regulation because when you were here last talking to John Micklethwaite, you had some pretty strong words about the risk that AI poses. And you said that you really felt what the US was missing was a federal AI regulator that, you know, something along the lines of the Food and Drug Administration or the Federal Aviation Administration. Now you're clearly now in a zone where you're more, you're more on the cutting regulation side than wanting new regulators. So has your view changed on the need for an AI regulator?
Elon Musk
Well, it's not that I don't think there should be regulators. You can think of regulators like referees on the field. In sports, there should be some number of referees, but you shouldn't have so many referees that you can't kick the ball without hitting one. So in many, in most fields in the US the regulatory burden has grown over time to the point where it's like having more referees than players on the field. And this is a natural consequence of an Extended period of prosperity. It's very important to appreciate this. This has happened throughout history. When you have an extended period of prosperity with no existential war, there's no cleansing function for unnecessary laws and regulations. So what happens is that every year more laws and more regulations are passed because you know, legislators are going to legislate, regulators are going to regulate, and you will get the steady pile of more and more laws and regulations over time until everything is illegal. And let me give an example of a truly absurd situation. Under the Biden administration, SpaceX was sued for not hiring asylum seekers in the US. Now the problem is it's actually illegal for SpaceX under iTard International Traffic and arms regulations to hire anyone who is not a permanent resident of the United States. Because the premise being that they will take advanced rocket technology and return to their home country if they're not a permanent resident. So we're simultaneously in a situation where it is illegal to hire CMCs and is also illegal to hire asylum seekers. And the Biden's Department of Justice chose to prosecute us despite both paths being illegal. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
But my question was specifically about a regulator for AI, which you said three years ago was needed. And you said we need to be proactive on the regulation of AI rather than reactive. Have you changed your mind on that?
Elon Musk
No, of course not. What I'm saying is that there should be some referees on the field. A few, a, a few referees, but you shouldn't have a field jam packed with referees such that you could not kick a ball in any direction without hitting one. So the, the, the, the fields that have been around for a long time, such as automotive, aerospace, you know, the sort of food and drug industries are over regulated. But the new fields like artificial intelligence are under regulated. In fact, there is no regulator at all.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
So they should be. Do you still think that?
Elon Musk
Yes, I'm simply saying, which I think is just basic common sense that you, that you want to have at least you want to have a few referees in the field. You don't want to have an army of referees, but you want to have a few referees on any given field, in any given sport, or even any given arena, industrial arena, to ensure that public safety is taken care of, but you don't have. So there's a proper number of referees. Like I said, it's actually very easy to visualize this when compared to sports. If the whole field is packed with referees, that would look absurd. But if there were no referees at all, your game's not going to be as good.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Okay, so let's then talk about your new world, your, your role advising government. You are in this unique and unprecedented position of having billions of dollars worth of contracts with the federal government yourself, mostly through SpaceX and also now an insider's knowledge of it because of doge. Can you see that there is a conflict of interest or a potential conflict of interest in broad terms just through that very fact?
Elon Musk
I don't think so. Actually. There have been many advisors throughout history and in the US government and others who have had economic interests and I am simply an advisor. I don't have formal power and that's it. A President can choose to accept my advice or not. And that's how it goes. If there's a single contract that any of my companies have received that people think is somehow not was, was awarded improperly, it would immediately be front page news to say the least. And if I hadn't mentioned it, certainly my competitors would. So if you're not seeing that, then clearly it's not a conflict of interest. The yeah.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
There's another way though to look at it that for example, you have many competitors, whether it's companies like Boeing or companies who would like to do more of the kind of work you do for NASA Blue Origin Rocket Lab. And because DOGE is in every federal government department, you or people who work for DOGE and and you are the driving force behind it, have an insight into those companies affairs and those companies relationships with the federal government.
Elon Musk
No, all we do is we review the organization to see if the organization has departments that are no longer relevant and are the contracts that are being awarded good value for money? In fact frankly the bar is not particularly high. Is there any value for money in a contract? And if there isn't, then we make recommendations to the Secretary. The Secretary can then choose to take those actions or not take those actions and that's it. And then any action that is as a function of Doge is posted to the Doge website and to the doge.gov handle on the X platform. So it's complete transparency. And I have not seen any case where to best my knowledge has even been an accusation of conflict because it is completely and utterly transparent. That's it.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
And what about the international dimension? Now let's think about Starlink. Starlink is obviously a very, very good Internet service. It's sought after all over the world. It's critical to the front line in Ukraine. It has also had more contracts coming its way and there is some evidence that Companies are allowing access to it because they want to be close to the Trump administration and send the right signal. So Bloomberg broke news today that the South African government is working around the rules on black ownership in order to allow starlink in. And that is being done on the eve of the visit that President Ramaphosa is going to make to the White House. Do you recognize that as a conflict of interest?
Elon Musk
No, of course not. First of all, you should be questioning why is that, why are there racist laws in South Africa? That's the first problem. The. That's what you should be attacking. It's improper for there to be racist laws in South Africa. The whole idea with what Nelson Mandela, who was a great man, proposed, was that all races should be on an equal footing in South Africa. That's the right thing to do. Not to replace one set of racist laws with another set of racist laws, which is utterly wrong and improper. So that's the deal, that all races should be treated equally and there should be no preference given to one or the other. Whereas there are now 140 laws in South Africa that give. That basically give strong preference to if you're a black South African and not otherwise. And so now I'm in this absurd situation where I was born in South Africa but cannot get a license to operate in starlink because I'm not black.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Well, it looks like that's about. Looks like that's about to change.
Elon Musk
I just asked you a question. Please answer. Does that seem right to you?
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Well, those rules were designed to bring. Those rules were designed to bring about an era of more economic equality in South Africa. And it looks like the government has found a way around those rules for you.
Elon Musk
I ask you a question.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
This is your interview. Everyone wants to hear from you.
Elon Musk
A question, yes or no?
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Not for me to answer. I have got a question for you about, about your government work, though, and the amount of savings.
Elon Musk
Why do you like wasteless laws?
Qatar Forum Interviewer
This is not for me to answer. Come on now. You wouldn't be trying to dodge a question.
Elon Musk
You have to ask a question. I'm not. Question. No, you answer mine.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
I say, I think if you. I'm sure you can have that conversation directly with the South African government if you want to. I want to ask you about the total.
Elon Musk
I can't believe it. That's not good.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
I want to ask you about the total amount. I want to ask you about the total amount that you're planning to save through Doge's work before the election. You said it was going to be at least 2 trillion. The number currently on doge.gov is $170 billion. That's a big change. What happened to the 2 trillion?
Elon Musk
Or do you expect it to happen immediately?
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Well, is it going to happen? Because those are supposed to run till next July.
Elon Musk
I mean, your question is absurd in this fundamental premise. Are you assuming that. That on day, you know, within a few months, this instant, 2 trillion saved.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
No, I'm not. All I'm just asking, is that still your aim?
Elon Musk
Is your aim to get time? Have we not made good progress given the amount of time?
Qatar Forum Interviewer
That's exactly what I'm asking. So is it still your aim to go from 170 billion to 2 trillion?
Elon Musk
The ability of Doge to operate is a function of whether the government, and this includes the Congress, is willing to take our advice. We are not the dictators of the government. We are the advisors, and so we can advise. And the progress we've made thus far, I think, is incredible. Doge team has done incredible work. But. But the magnitude of the savings is proportionate to the support we get from Congress and from the executive branch of the government in general. So we're not the dictators, we are the advisors. But thus far, for advisors, the Doge team, to their credit, has made incredible progress.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
You've talked about $4 billion a day being saved, but that, that won't get. Which is. And I think everyone can agree that combating waste and inefficiency in government is a very good thing, but if you add that up, it's not going to get to 2 trillion over the lifetime of DOGE. I'm sorry, the 4 billion. The 4 billion a day, if Doge is going to run till next July, is not going to get you to $2 trillion. But you still say it's your aim, so we'll take that as red, there's
Elon Musk
what Doge, I mean, I feel you're somewhat trapped in the NPC dialogue tree of a traditional journalist. So it's difficult when I'm conversing with someone who's trapped in the dialogue tree of a conventional journalist, because it's like talking to a computer. So Doge is an advisory group. We are doing the best we can as an advisory group. The progress made thus far as an advisory group is excellent. I don't think any advisory group has done better in the history of advisory groups of the government. Now, we do not make the laws, nor do we control the judiciary, nor do we control the executive branch. We are simply advisors in that context. We are doing Very well. Beyond that we cannot do, we cannot take action beyond that because we are not some sort of imperial dictator of the government. There are three branches of government that are to some degree opposed to that level of cost savings. But nonetheless, let's not criticize whether there's 4 trillion and instead look at the fact that that is 60 billion has been saved and more will be saved too.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
And as I said, I think everyone can agree that cutting waste and indeed fraud in any government and being responsible with taxpayers money is a very good thing. So yes, I can see, I can see that you're proud of that work. I do want to ask you about USAID and the comments that Bill Gates made, made the other day, which, and I know that you called him, I know you've said that already. I wondered also, and I'm just.
Elon Musk
Who does Bill Gates think he is to make comments about the welfare of children given that he was euphra. Quented? Jeffrey Epstein.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Okay, well, he said he regrets those and he's spent a lot of time, he spent a lot of his own money on, on philanthropy around the world over the years. My question to you is, have you looked at the data to check if he might be right, that the cuts to USAID might cost millions of lives?
Elon Musk
Yes, I'd like him to show us any, any evidence whatsoever that that is true. It's false. The what we found with USAID cuts, and by the way, they haven't all been cut. The parts of USAID that we found to be even slightly useful were transferred to the State Department. They've not been deleted. They've simply been transferred to the State Department. But many, many times over with USAID and other organizations, when they said, oh, well, this is going to help, you know, children or it's going to help some disease eradication or something like that. And then when we ask for any evidence whatsoever, I say, well, please connect us with this group of children so we can talk to them and understand more about their issue. We get nothing. We don't even try to prevent show come up with a, with a show orphan, meaning like they're sort of like, well, can we at least see a few kids? Like where are they? If they're in trouble, we'd like to talk to them and talk to their caregivers. And then we get the thing as a response because it's what we find is an enormous amount of fraud and graft.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Okay, let me put this example.
Elon Musk
Very little of it actually gets to the kids, if anything at all.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Okay, let me put this example to you because you grew up in South Africa, so you'll know the impact of HIV aids. Well, and this is why I asked about the data. The US led on international efforts to combat HIV AIDS treatment prevention. And there's an initiative called PEPFAR which is credited with saving 20, 26 million lives in the last 20 years. It was part of the foreign aid freeze. Then there was a limited waiver. Its services are disrupted and UNAID says if permanently discontinued, there will be another 4 million AIDS related deaths by 2029. So if you look at that example, which is backed up BY data in 2023, 630,000 people died of AIDS related illnesses, then perhaps Bill Gates figures are not wrong. Millions of lives could be lost.
Elon Musk
First of all, the program, the, the, the AIDS medication program is continuing. So your fundamental premise is wrong. It is continuing. Now, do you have another example since the 1
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Elon? Not in its entirety.
Elon Musk
That it is false.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Not in its entirety. There's a limited waiver and UNAIDS have said that not all of the services that were previously funded by USAID are continuing. So that's why I put that example to you.
Elon Musk
Okay, well which ones aren't being funded? Well, fix it right now.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Okay, well, actually they're all on the UNAIDS website, so you'll be able to see them. But mostly they are to do with, mostly they are to do with prevention and for example, the rollout of a drug called Lenacapavir, which was hailed as one of the biggest breakthroughs against AIDS for many years, which came out last year. So if you are perhaps, I'm sure UNAIDS would be delighted if you're able to look at that again.
Elon Musk
Yes, if in fact this is true, which I doubt it is, then we'll fix it.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Okay, fine. So finally, political, your political influence. I wondered whether you have decided yet how much you're going to spend on the, the upcoming midterms. Is it, you've, you spent a lot more money on the last U.S. election than you envisaged when you were speaking here three years ago. Are you going to continue to, to spend at that kind of level on future elections? I think
Elon Musk
in terms of political spending, I'm going to do a lot less in the future.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
And why is that?
Elon Musk
I think I've done enough.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Is it, is it because of blowback?
Elon Musk
Well, if I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it. I do not currently see a reason.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
What about political influence beyond the U.S. how often do you speak to President Putin?
Elon Musk
I don't speak to President Putin.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
You've never spoken to President Putin.
Elon Musk
I was on a video call with him once about five years ago.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
That's the only
Elon Musk
President Putin. I get it. You believe the legacy.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Actually, I've heard you speak about it. For example, in your West Point speech. Speech. You said, oh, I challenged President Putin to. Was it an arm wrestle? And I know the Wall Street Journal has reported your reported conversations. If you're saying they haven't happened other than once, I'll take that as red.
Elon Musk
Is there a worse publication on the face of the earth in the Wall Street Journal? I wouldn't use that to line up my cage for paratroopings. That newspaper is the worst newspaper in the world. And there's, and you know, if there's one newspaper that should be pro capitalist, it's the one with Wall street in the name, but it isn't. So I have the very lowest opinion of the Wall Street Journal. Absolute nonsense. And you clearly believe the tribe that you've written, that you've read in those papers.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
I read, I read very widely. And I'm putting these questions to you so that you have an opportunity to respond to them, which you are. And, and for which we're all grateful to hear your responses. Okay, we are, we are out of time.
Elon Musk
So you mentioned, you mentioned me challenging. I did so on, on the X platform, I challenged Vladimir Putin to single combat over the. But I didn't talk to him. That was a post on the X platform.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
That's why, that's why I asked you and you've, and you've clarified and explained. Thank you. That's, that's why I was asking whether you have had reported conversations and you said you haven't other than a video call. Okay.
Elon Musk
Typical legacy media lies.
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Okay, listen, I actually thought I might give Grok the last word because when I asked Grok what your hardest challenge is, it said the strain of managing multiple high stakes ventures amid financial, regulatory and public relations crises. And I wondered whether you recognize that characterization and whether you do think that this is a pivotal year in your life.
Elon Musk
Well, every year has been somewhat pivotal and this one's no different. So I mean, in terms of interesting things that hopefully are accomplished this year, the getting starship to be fully reusable so that the, that we catch both the booster and the ship, which will be the first fully reusable orbital rocket ever in history, which is, would be a profound breakthrough as the essential breakthrough necessarily to make life multi planetary and ultimately become a space faring civilization. We've got Neuralink which has now helped five patients restore capability using the telepathy implant where they're able to control a computer simply by thinking we'll be doing our first patient to restore sight with our blindsight implant which is the end of the serial early next in fact that first patient might be in UAE since we have a relationship with UAE and the Cleveland Clinic there I think we're running on the AI front we are close to almost you might call AGI or or or digital super intelligence I think we'll see we we are seeing an explosion in digital super intelligence here and then we've got at Tesla the we'll be launching unsupervised autonomy basically self driving cars with no one in them in Austin next month so it's it's a big year for sure Many other things on the in the works too. Okay I'm a technologist first and foremost
Qatar Forum Interviewer
Elon Musk, thank you very much for joining us here at Qatar Economic Forum. Thank you.