Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk reaffirmed his belief that poverty can eventually be eliminated, arguing that rapid advances in artificial intelligence and humanoid robotics will reshape global economies and turn traditional employment into a matter of personal preference rather than necessity.

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Speaking at the US–Saudi Investment Forum in Washington, Musk said the next decade will bring sweeping structural changes as AI systems mature and robotics scale across industries.

Musk described poverty as “more of an engineering problem than an unsolvable social issue”, adding that technologies such as Grok and Tesla’s Optimus robot could address labour shortages, dramatically cut production costs and push societies toward a future where essential goods become far more affordable.

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He suggested that, over the “long term” — the next 10 to 20 years — the very nature of employment will shift. “My prediction is that work will be optional,” he said. “It’ll be like playing sports or a video game. You can buy vegetables from a store, or you can grow them in your backyard because you enjoy it. That’s what work will become — a choice.”

Musk, who leads Tesla, SpaceX and AI startup xAI, argued that as AI models grow more capable and humanoid robots take on complex physical tasks, the cost of goods and services will fall sharply. According to him, this technological leap could make basic needs universally accessible, ultimately reducing poverty to what he called a “statistically irrelevant” condition.