Musk: "Tariffs Distort Markets, Free Trade Is Better"

"If you invest in AI, invest in Nvidia and Alphabet"

"The concept of 'money' will disappear within 20 years"

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said "free trade is better" and emphasized that "tariffs distort markets."

On the 2nd (local time), Elon Musk again raised concerns about the Trump administration's tariff policy on a podcast with Indian entrepreneur Nikhil Kamas. Musk, who was once one of President Trump's closest aides, said he opposed the imposition of tariffs to the president but failed to persuade him.

He said, "Overall free trade is better," and asked rhetorically, "If you imagine tariffs between individuals or between U.S. states, it would be a disaster for the U.S. economy, so why impose tariffs between countries?"

When asked by Kamas where he would invest in AI-related stocks besides Tesla at current levels, he mentioned "Nvidia and Alphabet." Musk said, "Alphabet has laid the foundation for tremendous value creation from an AI perspective."

Last month Google released the well-received Gemini 3.0 model, and the latest tensor processing unit (TPU) chips used to train and run it are also assessed to have the potential to rival Nvidia's graphics processing units (GPUs). Google's Waymo is ahead of Tesla's robotaxi in the autonomous driving business and last month became the first company to be authorized to operate autonomous driving services on U.S. highways without a safety monitor.

He said, "AI and robotics will become very important," and "the amount of goods and services produced by AI and robotics will be so great that it will overwhelm everything else."

Musk also predicted that "work will become optional and the concept of 'money' will disappear within 20 years." He said energy is the true currency. He added, "That's why I said Bitcoin is based on energy."

He also opposed ending the H-1B visa program, saying the U.S. benefits from Indian talent. However, he pointed out that some companies misuse the H-1B visa program by hiring foreign workers as "part of the cost of hiring American citizens." He said his own companies hire foreign talent to fill "a shortage of talented people."

President Trump raised the H-1B visa fee to $100,000 in September, which particularly affected Indian workers who account for more than 70% of H-1B visa holders. In an interview with Fox News last month, President Trump suggested easing the stance on H-1B visas, saying the U.S. lacks "talent in certain fields" and needs foreign labor.

Kim Jeong-a, guest reporter kja@hankyung.com