Elon Musk said the United States needs artificial intelligence and robots to solve its national debt problem.

On April 28, electric vehicle-focused outlet CleanTechnica reported that Musk recently appeared on the Dwarkesh Podcast and said that without AI and robots the United States would eventually go bankrupt and fail as a country.

Musk has drawn attention over plans to produce Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus. He said on Tesla's quarterly earnings conference call last week that the first Optimus production line is set to start operating this year, within the current quarter. He said the line could have capacity to produce up to 1 million units a year.

On the podcast, Musk said, "Without AI and robots we will 1,000 percent go bankrupt and fail as a country," adding, "There is no other way to solve the national debt." The remarks came as criticism continues that U.S. fiscal deterioration is linked to structural problems.

U.S. national debt stands at $38.96 trillion, U.S. Treasury data showed. Debt is rising as federal government spending continues to exceed revenue. For fiscal 2026, government spending exceeds revenue by about $1.17 trillion.

An expansion of defence spending was also cited as a factor weighing on finances. The Donald Trump administration is reported to have requested a $1.5 trillion defence budget for 2027. That is seen as the biggest annual increase since World War Two. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated that the plan could raise defence spending by about $5 trillion through 2035 and, including interest costs, could increase national debt by about $5.8 trillion.

The "One Big Beautiful Bill" (OBBBA) was also mentioned as a factor behind rising debt. The CRFB projected that the bill could increase national debt by $4.2 trillion through fiscal 2034 and by $4.7 trillion through 2035. Public policy expert Linda Bilmes said war costs could impose a burden of more than $1 trillion on Americans.