In a recent podcast exchange, billionaire Elon Musk frankly spoke about the US public debt situation with rare words.
We are certain that 1,000% will go bankrupt as a nation and fail as a nation without AI and robots. National debt is piling up madly," he emphasized.
According to Elon Musk, the scale and growth rate of US public debt have exceeded the ability to handle it with traditional economic tools. He believes that only a leap in productivity thanks to artificial intelligence and large-scale automation can help the US economy "run faster" to escape the debt vortex.
Official figures show that the US public debt has now reached about 38. 560 billion USD. Federal spending continuously far exceeds revenue, creating an increasing deficit. In fiscal year 2026 alone, the US government spent about 602 billion USD more than it earned.
What Elon Musk is particularly concerned about is not only the total debt, but also the increasingly inflated interest payment costs.
Interest payable for public debt has exceeded the military budget, which is about 1,000 billion USD," he said. This is a sign that the debt burden is no longer a vague long-term issue, but is directly squeezing the government's spending space.
New forecasts further strengthen this concern. The Federal Budget Committee is responsible for warning that US interest payments could exceed $1.5 trillion by 2032 and reach $1.8 trillion by 2035. If this scenario occurs, the US budget will face unprecedented pressure, forced to sharply cut spending or increase taxes.
Besides the risk of bankruptcy on paper, Elon Musk has repeatedly warned about the depreciation of the USD. According to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, the purchasing power of 100 USD in 2025 is only equivalent to about 12.06 USD in 1970. This shows that the US dollar has been seriously eroded in value for decades.
The decline in the value of the USD, combined with increasingly high debt interest payment costs, could create major shocks for the US economy, from prolonged inflation to financial instability.
According to analysts, this is a dangerous vicious circle: High debt forces the government to borrow more, and borrowing more increases inflationary pressure and currency devaluation.
Although drawing a gloomy picture, Elon Musk is not completely pessimistic. He believes that AI and robots can become "escape routes" if deployed quickly and widely enough, thanks to their ability to significantly increase labor productivity, reduce costs and open up new economic sectors.
For Elon Musk, this is no longer a technology story, but a national survival issue.
In that context, Elon Musk's warning is also seen as a reminder to investors and the American people about protecting assets from inflation and fiscal instability risks.
History shows that in difficult periods, those who actively adjust their financial strategies are often more likely to overcome crises better.
