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Tesla CEO Elon Musk doubled down on his warnings about U.S. debt, predicting financial doom will be guaranteed without the transformative effects of AI and robotics on the economy.
In a lengthy, wide-ranging interview with podcaster Dwarkesh Patel alongside Stripe cofounder and president John Collison on Thursday, the tech billionaire was asked why he pushed for aggressive spending cuts while leading the Department of Government Efficiency if technology will supercharge GDP growth and ease the debt burden.
Musk replied that he was concerned about waste and fraud. That’s despite reports that many across-the-board staffing cuts included critical employees who had to be hired back.
“In the absence of AI and robotics, we’re actually totally screwed because the national debt is piling up like crazy,” he added.
Interest payments alone on the $38.5 trillion debt pile are about $1 trillion a year, exceeding the U.S. military budget, Musk pointed out.
Debt-servicing costs also top spending on social programs like Medicare. But President Donald Trump has vowed to boost annual defense outlays to $1.5 trillion, so the defense budget could overtake interest payments again, at least temporarily.
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