Tesla CEO Elon Musk has issued a stark warning about the United States’ financial future, saying the country is headed toward bankruptcy as its national debt continues to rise, News.Az reports, citing Yahoo Finance.
In a February 5 appearance on the Dwarkesh Podcast, Musk argued that America is moving rapidly toward financial collapse unless there is a major breakthrough in artificial intelligence and robotics.
“We are 1,000% going to go bankrupt as a country and fail as a country, without AI and robots,” he said. “Nothing else will solve the national debt.”
According to the U.S. Treasury Department, the national debt currently stands at $38.96 trillion and continues to increase as federal spending exceeds revenue. In fiscal year 2026 so far, the government has already spent about $1.17 trillion more than it has collected.
***
Musk warned that without significant productivity gains driven by advanced technologies, the economic outlook is extremely severe, stating that the country is “actually totally screwed because the national debt is piling up like crazy.”
He also highlighted the growing burden of servicing the debt itself, saying interest payments have become a major strain on public finances.
“The interest payments on national debt exceed the military budget, which is a trillion dollars. So we have over a trillion dollars just in interest payments,” he said.
