Elon Musk made a surprising statement: "Saving money like crazy right now is no different from primitive people hoarding shells. The unit of wealth in the future will not be 'Yuan', but 'Watts.'"
Musk said this during an interview that went viral in the tech community. The statement is: "Saving money like crazy right now is no different from primitive people hoarding shells; the unit of wealth in the future will not be 'Yuan', but 'Watts.'"
This statement sounds a bit disruptive, but it is not something he said offhand; it was mentioned during a nearly three-hour in-depth interview with the 'Moonshots' podcast at the Tesla Gigafactory in Texas. He has also mentioned similar views multiple times at Tesla shareholder meetings and on his social media platforms.
The reason Musk says this is that he believes the logic of saving money will eventually become outdated.
Right now, we are desperately saving money, simply wanting to exchange today's labor for future security. However, in his view, when AI and robotics technology matures, things will be different.
At that time, robots can work 24 hours a day—whether it’s mining, building houses, or producing medicines—without human intervention; labor costs will nearly drop to zero. By then, the prices of goods will only approach the costs of raw materials and energy, and the paper currency we save now will be like the shells hoarded by primitive people—seemingly "wealth," but possibly worthless in the future.
He says the unit of wealth in the future is "Watts," which is actually easy to understand. Watts are a measure of energy. In Musk's judgment, all production and life in the future, even the operation of AI, cannot be separated from energy.
AI training, robots working, data centers operating—each of these requires a substantial amount of electricity. Energy is the "blood" of the future; whoever can control more energy can drive everything and thus possess real wealth.
Even his own businesses have been focused on energy; Tesla is making energy storage batteries to store excess electricity. He even plans to launch solar satellites into space and build factories on the moon, all to gain more energy.
Musk also mentioned that money is different from energy. Money can be printed and issued by the government, making it easy to depreciate. In contrast, energy cannot be created out of thin air according to physical laws; producing energy requires real costs. This is also key to energy becoming the core of future wealth.
He gave his own example: when building a large-scale data center, due to a lack of electricity, he had to use gas turbines to piece together power and also equip giant battery packs to stabilize the output. This shows that electricity has become a key constraint on the development of high technology, further validating his statement that "Watts are the unit of future wealth."
Many people have different opinions on Musk's statement. Some find it reasonable, while others think it is unrealistic. However, these views are not something he made up; they are judgments based on trends in AI and energy development.
Ultimately, he is not discouraging everyone from saving money but trying to explain that the core of future wealth will shift from currency to energy. Being overly obsessed with saving money is less important than focusing on energy-related developments, which is the key to seizing future wealth.
The above are personal opinions. What different views do you have? You can leave comments in the discussion area!!!