Why the richest man on Earth wants you to think money won’t matter

August 16, 2026 — 5:11am

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According to the richest person on Earth, pretty soon money will be a thing of the past. He’s not just talking about physical cash, either, although our rates of using coins and notes have been on a downward trajectory for quite some time now.

No, according to Elon Musk, within just 10 years’ time, artificial intelligence and an army of robots will essentially negate our need for money, to the point where it “won’t matter” any more.

Speaking to The Economist recently, Musk said, “You want money for goods and services, right? You want money for obviously food, housing, transport, entertainment. Well, if that is so abundant that the robots and AI are providing more goods and services than any human could possibly consume, what do you need money for?”

As tempting as it might be to roll our eyes and write Elon Musk and his many predictions for the future off, what he says still holds an incredible amount of sway. The incredible financial success of his companies Tesla, Starlink and SpaceX, which is the basis for his exorbitant wealth, means that when he speaks many people listen (not least because he makes users of his social media platform, X, listen).

And this is what, I think, is one of the biggest problems with him, and his willingness to offer up opinions on any number of topics so freely. But to use an old saying that feels especially fitting when applied to Musk, talk is cheap.

Back in 2011, he said that within a decade his company SpaceX would have put a person on Mars. By 2016, he revised this prediction, saying that by 2018 they would be sending rockets to Mars, which would then be........

© Brisbane Times