Elon Musk Says Economy Could Grow Tenfold in a Decade; Money Will Be ‘Worthless’ and Universal High Income Will Follow, It Has Been Reported

Musk’s sweeping forecast

It has been reported that Elon Musk, the entrepreneur behind Tesla and SpaceX, told an audience in a recent discussion that the global economy could expand tenfold over the next ten years, leaving money “effectively worthless” and making a universal high income a practical reality. The claim captures a familiar Musk mix of techno-optimism and shock-value projection: dramatic productivity gains driven by automation and artificial intelligence will, he argued, create abundance on a scale that breaks current monetary and labour models. Tenfold in ten years — plausible or provocative hyperbole? Either way, it demands attention.

Why this matters for tech and labour

If true, such an acceleration would upend labour markets and fiscal policy debates everywhere. Policymakers already wrestle with questions of job displacement, redistribution and safety nets; the idea of universal high income moves from theory to an urgent policy test case. Tech companies and investors will be watching for the AI and robotics breakthroughs that could deliver those productivity gains. In China, where firms from Baidu (百度) to Huawei (华为) and Alibaba (阿里巴巴) are racing on AI and advanced manufacturing, the implications are immediate: will state industrial policy and targeted investment capture the gains, or will global supply-chain tensions and technology export controls blunt the effect?

Geopolitics and the credibility test

There are geopolitical stakes too. Sanctions, trade policy and semiconductor export controls already shape who can scale AI hardware and advanced manufacturing. Even if output surges, money becoming “worthless” depends on monetary policy, inflation dynamics and international coordination — not just factories and code. Musk’s track record of bold prognostication is mixed; extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Watch for measurable productivity jumps, real wage trends, central-bank responses and concrete deployment of AI/robotics at scale. It has been reported by Huxiu that Musk’s latest remarks have rekindled these debates — and they are only going to get louder.