--- title: "Elon Musk, Who is Hoarding Nearly a Trillion Dollars, Says Saving Money Is “Pointless”" description: "The world's first and only trillionaire Elon Musk said that saving money is \"pointless\" — because of, he explained, AI." date: "2026-10-29" modified: "2026-10-29" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore.md" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/elon-musk-saving-money-pointless" categories: - "Future Society" --- # Elon Musk, Who is Hoarding Nearly a Trillion Dollars, Says Saving Money Is “Pointless” ![A photo illustration of Elon Musk in front of a stack of money.]() *Shutterstock / Futurism* Is Elon Musk a business genius, as his fans and investors proclaim, or "among the top ten minds in history, rivaling polymaths like da Vinci or Newton," as his chatbot Grok [famously averred]()? Whatever he is, you definitely couldn't accuse him of being particularly self-aware. Early Thursday morning, Musk took to his social media site X to deliver some sage advice to us peons living paycheck to paycheck: don't save money for the future, because it's "pointless." "Saving money for the distant future is pointless with the advent of super intelligent abundance," Musk wrote in a [tweet](). It's a feat of hypocrisy as staggering as Musk's obscene preponderance of wealth. He's a sometimes-trillionaire, a net worth catapulted well past the $900 billion mark following the uber-hyped IPO of his company SpaceX. If he blew $100 million everyday for the next twenty years of his life, he still wouldn't even come close to spending all the money he's amassed. Musk is also pretty miserly compared to many of his fellow elites. He has few philanthropic initiatives and gives very little to charitable causes. (Mostly, he seems to enjoy [pouring money into Republic election campaigns](), including some $300 million towards Donald Trump's 2024 presidential run.) The charity he does operate, the Musk Foundation, is [under scrutiny for its opaque structure and its shady donations](). Much of its nearly $15 billion in assets has gone towards organizations with close ties to Musk and his businesses. Not that long ago, Musk also agreed that charities are a "net negative" on the world; perhaps that's why he barely pretends that his foundation is in any way charitable. The *New York Times* [reported]() that the Musk Foundation failed to give away the minimum amount of money it was supposed to in 2023 by a margin of $421 million. His latest rant about saving money is as much a testament to how out of touch he is as it is his delusional optimism about AI — a technology he has repeatedly insisted will soon bring about untold "abundance" for all. In a now [infamous interview with *The Economist*]() this summer, Musk said "there really won't be anything AI won't be able to do better than humans, apart from being human, perhaps" — which, in his eyes, is a good thing. "I think AI may exceed the sum of human intelligence in around five years," he continued. "The most likely outcome is an age of amazing abundance where anyone can have anything they can think of." It's not the first time that his advice for this coming future was to try being a spendthrift. "Don't worry about squirrelling money away for retirement in like 10 or 20 years — it won't matter," Musk [said]() in a January podcast appearance. "You won't need to save for retirement. If any of the things that we've said are true, saving for retirement will be irrelevant." Earlier this month, Musk [pledged]() to give "every kid in America" a single share of SpaceX stock — a move that was seemingly in response to his AI rival Anthropic vowing to divert a huge portion of its shares into a philanthropic "public benefit fund." It remains to be seen if Musk, notorious for making grand promises he doesn't make good on, will follow through. **More on Elon Musk:** [*Elon Musk Says He’s Been Struggling With AI Psychosis*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]() ## More - [Elon Musk’s Neuralink Caught Filing for Benefits Meant for Small Businesses Run by Minorities]() - [The Trump Administration Reportedly Has Extensive Logs of Epstein Money Transfers, Refuses to Release Them]() - [Calm Down About the Area 51 Fire, People]() - [We Just Got a Major Clue About Why Twitter’s CEO Suddenly Left This Week]() - [Elon Musk Says He Is So Sorry for His Horrible Behavior]() - [United Airlines Shuts Down Starlink WiFi Service on Its Planes After the Antennae Caused Problems With Its Jets’ Equipment]() - [Hawk Tuah Girl Admits She Knew Essentially Zero About Crypto When Her Disastrous Meme Coin Launched]() - [Elon Musk Is Doing Business With Actual Terrorists, Nonprofit Finds]()