On January 7th, it was reported that Elon Musk, founder of Tesla and SpaceX, recently stated in a podcast that AGI will arrive by 2026, and humanity is experiencing a "technological singularity" moment akin to a "supersonic tsunami." He predicted that white-collar workers and surgeons will be replaced by AI, and society will navigate through turbulence toward an era of "universal high income" and extreme abundance. He praised China's energy infrastructure, noting that computing power in "watt" terms may become a new form of currency, and computing power deployment will transition to orbital and interstellar scales.

He believes that when labor costs approach zero and the cost of intelligence is minimized, goods and services will become vastly abundant. Musk explained, "This isn't about simple taxation and redistribution; it's about prices falling to the cost of materials plus electricity. People will be able to 'have whatever they want,' and we will enter an era of abundance far beyond imagination." However, he also warned that the transition period over the next three to seven years will be extremely "bumpy," with social upheaval occurring alongside extreme prosperity.

Musk also stated, "China will have stronger computing power than any other country and will likely possess more chips." He added, "Based on current trends, China will far surpass the rest of the world in AI computing power."

Musk noted that China's decisive advantage in the AI race lies in its ability to expand power generation capacity. He estimated that by 2026, China's power generation could be about three times that of the United States, enabling it to support energy-intensive AI data centers. Musk emphasized that power generation is a constraint on the scalability of AI systems, stating, "People underestimate the difficulty of power supply."

Despite the U.S. efforts to restrict China's access to advanced semiconductors, Musk believes the impact of these restrictions will likely diminish over time. He said China "will figure out the chip problem."

Musk made these remarks at a time when energy supply and data infrastructure have become key constraints for the scalable development of AI, surpassing chips and algorithms in importance.