Elon Musk’s Davos Appearance Turns Awkward as Jokes Miss — but Big Bets on Robots and AI Take Center Stage

Elon Musk’s surprise appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday began on an uneasy note, marked by an awkward reception and jokes that failed to land with the global audience. Yet beneath the uneasy humor, the Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI founder used the high-profile platform to unveil ambitious plans spanning humanoid robots, self-driving vehicles, artificial intelligence, and space exploration.

The moment set the tone early. After Musk stepped onto the stage, applause from the audience was noticeably muted, prompting BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, a co-chair of the forum, to intervene. “That was not a large applause. Start again,” Fink told the crowd, attempting to reset the atmosphere.

Musk, who has been an outspoken critic of European politics and a vocal supporter of right-wing parties such as Germany’s AfD, then launched into a joke referencing former U.S. President Donald Trump’s newly formed Board of Peace. Playing on the word “peace,” Musk quipped, “Is that piece? A little piece of Greenland. A little piece of Venezuela,” spelling out the word as he spoke.

The joke, delivered just a day after Trump announced what he called “a framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland,” was met largely with silence in the Davos hall.

Undeterred, Musk leaned further into humor, joking at various points that he was an alien from outer space. “I’m often asked: ‘Are there aliens among us?’ And I’ll say, I am one, but they don’t believe me,” he said, adding that if anyone would know, it would be him. Fink responded awkwardly, “You’re from the future? Okay.”

The exchange grew more tense when Musk argued that a future with more robots than people would be essential to delivering a high standard of living for humanity. Fink pushed back, asking how humans would find purpose in such a world. “Well, I mean, nothing’s perfect,” Musk replied, drawing nervous laughter from the audience.

Despite the uneven tone, Fink later sought to soften the moment, saying, “I want to humanize you,” before offering a stream of praise and calling Musk both an inspiration and a friend.

Amid the humor and tension, Musk delivered several headline-making announcements. He said Tesla expects to begin selling its Optimus humanoid robots to the public by the end of 2027, a revelation that helped lift Tesla shares by 1.7 per cent on Thursday. Earlier in the week, Musk had cautioned that production rollouts for Optimus and Tesla’s self-driving Cybercabs would be “agonizingly slow,” but his Davos comments suggested renewed confidence.

On autonomous driving, Musk said Tesla is targeting supervised approval for its “full self-driving” technology in Europe as early as next month, with China potentially following on a similar timeline. Tesla has already deployed Robotaxis in select U.S. cities, including Austin, Texas, though those vehicles still carry passengers tasked with monitoring driving activity.

Turning to space, Musk reiterated his lifelong ambition to reach Mars, saying he hopes to die on the red planet — “just not on impact.” He also said SpaceX aims to prove full reusability of its massive Starship rocket this year. Starship, the world’s largest space launch vehicle, would dramatically reduce the cost of space travel, Musk argued, likening it to aviation economics. “If you have to throw your aircraft away every flight, that would be a very expensive flight,” he said.

SpaceX has already demonstrated partial reusability with its Falcon 9 rocket, which has reused the same booster more than 20 times.

Musk also made bold predictions about artificial intelligence, estimating that AI smarter than any single human could emerge by the end of this year, and that within five years, AI could surpass the combined intelligence of all humanity.

“If we have ubiquitous AI, which is essentially free or close to it, and ubiquitous robotics,” Musk said, “then you will have an explosion in the global economy that is truly beyond all precedent.”

While his jokes may have fallen flat in Davos, Musk’s vision — expansive, controversial, and characteristically ambitious — ensured that his appearance remained one of the forum’s most talked-about moments.