In a recent discussion, Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley highlighted the economic impact of "physical AI," predicting that the combination of AI and robotics will lead to an "8x or 10x global GDP" multiplier before Ed and he retire. He noted that global GDP currently stands at "$180 trillion ballpark as of 2025," and while previous 10x increases took 66 or 150 years, the next could happen in roughly 30 years due to "embodied real world AI."
Jonas expects "tens of billions of robots in our daily lives within the next one to two decades." He pointed to Tesla and SpaceX as key companies in this transition, stating they "have each arguably assembled separate but synergistically linked physical AI capabilities and are working to gradually close the gap between them." While declining to comment on a merger, he believes their relationship is "deterministic," with Tesla acting as a "manufacturing and data collection layer" for robots and SpaceX providing "connectivity and the AI layer," both sharing a mission of "converting energy to intelligence at scale."
He asserted that "any machine that can be automated will be," and any machine without an AI edge inference computer will face rapid obsolescence. Regarding humanoid robots, Jonas mentioned that in Morgan Stanley's modeling out to 2050, humanoids are projected to number in the "billions" in many scenarios, despite their current role as a "recruiting tool and a capital raising tool." He envisions a future with "thousands of different stratum of low altitude robots, terrestrial robots, autonomous vehicles, mobile robots, industrial, and everything in between," connected in a "swarming intelligence" for "distributed inference cloud connected to the distributed orbital cloud of the space-based AI infrastructure." He likened using a data center for inference to "using a Ferrari to pick up the milk," emphasizing the need for more efficient "inference at the edge."
Jonas credited Tesla and Tesla/SpaceX with offering "one of the best chances to help revive and give Western industry a chance to keep up, if not to surpass our geopolitical rivals over time in robotics and physical AI." He declared that "autonomous cars are solved," pointing to "2023 when Waymo pulled the driver from Phoenix" as the historical turning point, which he believes will "open up the floodgates for other form factors to follow."
The podcaster noted Adam Jonas's "world-class question dodge" regarding a Tesla/SpaceX merger, suggesting it might indicate privileged information. He agreed with Jonas on the ubiquity of AI, the "near-infinite demand for intelligence," and consequently, "near-infinite demand for AI compute for many decades to come." The podcaster also highlighted the potential for companies capable of scaling AI compute and launching "millions of space-based AI satellites for inference." He concluded by mentioning his new "20-year Tesla and SpaceX valuation model" is now live on Patreon and promoted AG1 as part of his daily health protocol.