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Elon Musk quote, Feb 5, 2026

CEO, Tesla and xAI · Feb 5, 2026 · Interview, Dwarkesh Podcast: In 36 months, the cheapest place to put AI will be space

In 36 months, but probably closer to 30 months, the most economically compelling place to put AI will be space.

Primary source

Words found on the source page on Sep 25, 2026.

More from Elon Musk

Quote
But I think China’s going to be making pretty compelling chips in three or four years.Feb 5, 2026· Interview
Meaning, five years from now, my prediction is we will launch and be operating every year more AI in space than the cumulative total on Earth.Feb 5, 2026· Interview
My guess is that people start getting to the point where they can’t turn the chips on for large clusters towards the end of this year. The chips are going to be piling up and won’t be able to be turned on.Feb 5, 2026· Interview
The limiting factor once you can get to space is chips, but the limiting factor before you can get to space is power.Feb 5, 2026· Interview
The output of chips is growing pretty much exponentially, but the output of electricity is flat.Feb 5, 2026· Interview
Truth has to be absolutely fundamental because you can’t understand the universe if you’re delusional.Feb 5, 2026· Interview
Well, I’d be surprised by the end of this year if digital human emulation has not been solved.Feb 5, 2026· Interview

On the same topics

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If the top U.S. labs have to give up on what is supposed to be really important, they will look very “catchable.” The policy creates a big incentive for some other parts of the world to invest a lot more in compute.Tyler CowenSep 22, 2026· Post
A world with sufficient compute is one where intelligence is a commodity, and in commodity markets margin comes from a superior cost structure, which I would expect the leading model providers to have, in part because they have a meaningful lead in scaling and can apply superior AI to their infrastructure.Ben ThompsonSep 21, 2026· Post
I have my doubts that the labs can afford to spend a constant portion of this compute on internal R&D as the total volume goes up, especially with plans to IPO, as they face increased scrutiny on basic economics.Nathan LambertSep 19, 2026· Post
It is important to not confuse massive steps in inference-time scaling, a dynamic which should be fairly predictable, with being the outputs of RSI, which is highly uncertain.Nathan LambertSep 19, 2026· Post
If you have five hours, you’re probably going to do a lot better. The AI models are pretty similar.Noam BrownSep 17, 2026· Interview
Within a generation, the way we discover medicine, manage power grids, and secure our national infrastructure will be completely transformed.Aidan GomezSeptember 2026· Essay
About this quote
Said by
Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla and xAI
Where
Dwarkesh Podcast: In 36 months, the cheapest place to put AI will be space
Topics
Compute, Energy
Company
xAI
Source
dwarkesh.com/p/elon-musk

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