00:00We now have a man who by many measures at least is the world's greatest capitalist at the moment. Elon Musk thank you very much for coming and talking to us. You could argue at the moment the US in the media we have at least three Elon Musk to deal with. We have the proposed buyer of Twitter. We have the CEO of Tesla Space X and much else. And we have Musk the emerging political force. And that's before we discover or discuss all the different provocations and tweets and so on. But maybe we can run through those three. And let's begin with Twitter. And I suppose my question for you is what is the status of the 44 billion deal 44 billion dollar deal to buy the company. If you look at the deal spreads at the moment the investors seem to be betting that it won't happen I suppose. And right here you have the guitarist who amongst your backers. What are you going to say to them and to us. First of all I'd like to say your highness your excellencies and distinguished guests. Thank you very much for hosting me virtually. It's an honor to be here or be there virtually. And I actually wish I could be there in person. So with respect to the Twitter transaction there's a limit to what I can say publicly given that it is somewhat of a sensitive matter. And so I would like to be measured in my responses here. Such as not to generate incremental lawsuits. That seems to be a rescue sometimes managed to overcome. Yes. Deposition minimization is I think important. Have you as have Twitter given you enough information. Well there are still a few unresolved matters. You probably read about the question as to whether the number of fake and spam users on the system is less than 5 percent as Twitter claims. Which I think is probably not most people's experience on when using Twitter. So we're still awaiting resolution on that matter and that that is a very significant matter. So we're awaiting resolution on that. And then of course there is the question of will the debt portion of the round come together. And then will the shareholders vote in favor. So I think those are the three things that stand in them that need to be resolved before the transaction can complete. What about the general state of the economy. Does that weigh on you when you think about this. I mean just described it. You have a super bad feeling about the economy. Are you still in that position. I just said you earlier Joe Biden has just come out and said that a recession in America is not inevitable. How do you feel about the economy. Well I think a recession is inevitable at some point as to whether there is a recession in the near term. I think that is more likely than not. It certainly isn't. It's not a certainty but it appears more likely than not. And where do you think. I'm I'm I'm. I'm with you. I agree with you. I think it's more likely. Can I ask you one particular thing to do with the Twitter bid which is you know you are one of the biggest and fastest growing investors in China. Tesla you've talked about it being a third of your sales going forward. You're now buying Twitter the kind of public forum for free speech. The Chinese historically tend to be very enthusiastic about free speech. Are you worried about whether you can keep those two particular horses running. Is is buying Twitter going to get you in trouble with the Chinese. Well Twitter does not operate and yes. And I think change is not it's to a few interfere with the free speech of the press in the US. As far as I know IBEX I assume you're not under pressure to get Bloomberg to get it from China. So I think there's. I don't think this could be an issue in terms generally of that issue of freedom of speech and Twitter. You've talked about Twitter being making it even freer and letting more people onto it. Is there a limit at all to who you think should be allowed on Twitter. Well I had my aspiration for Twitter or in general for the digital town square would be that it is as inclusive in the broader sense of the word as possible that it is. It is an appealing system to use. So I mean ideally I'd like to get like 80 percent of that in North America perhaps. I don't know half the world or something. Ultimately on on Twitter and in one form or another. And that needs. That means it must be something that is appealing to people. It obviously cannot be a place where they feel uncomfortable or harassed or they'll simply not use it. So I think there's there's this big difference between freedom of speech and freedom of reach in that one can obviously tape. I said go in the middle of Times Square and pretty much yell anything you want. And do you. You annoy the people around you but you're kind of allowed to just sort of yell whatever you want. And in a crowded public place more or less apart from this is this is a robbery probably that would get you in trouble. So but but then that that whatever you say however controversial does not need to then be broadcast to the whole country. So I think generally the approach of Twitter should be to let people say what they want to do within the bounds of the law but then limit the. Who sees that based on any given Twitter users preferences. So if your preferences are to see anything or read anything then well you'll get that. But if your preferences are well it you'd prefer not to see the comments that you find offensive in one form or another. Then you you can have that as a setting and not see it. And but I think one way or another if one is to take the steps that I and that that entice most people to want to be on Twitter and enjoy it and find it informative and entertaining and funny and just something useful is as useful as possible. It sounds like you want to be involved is your plan to be CEO of Twitter. And if you do that would you still keep being CEO of Tesla and SpaceX X. Well I. I wouldn't drive the product which is what I do with Space X and Tesla. So I drive the product and technology whether I'm that when I'm called the CEO or something else is much less important than my ability to drive the product in the right direction. Can I jump towards Tesla. They're not you know most people it's very obvious you have changed the car industry and in a dramatic way. I'm quite intrigued by one thing which is your competitors. Where do you see competition coming from. Do you see it coming from the old carmakers coming back at you. I just saw a forecast that may be in a couple of years time Volkswagen would be bigger than new in electric cars. Or do you see it coming from new place. Do you believe that. I believe that forecast was was from you. Yes it was. And do you agree with that. I would not agree with that forecast. Do you see people like Volkswagen and General Motors and people like buses as the opponent. So you see people like China that knew Chinese companies. Where do you see the most vibrant competition in electric cars. I'd say that I am very impressed with the companies and the car companies in China just in general with companies in China. I think they're extremely competitive hardworking and smart. And and I think there's going gonna be just a massive wave of Chinese products growing up in the world. They already are. But you know for example like almost all the iPhones are made in China by contract factories for Apple. But I think we'll see just a large wave of products being exported from China. In many industries like say electric cars do they have an advantage at all. You know. Yeah. No I do think. Well I should say from the Tom Mackenzie perspective we don't really think about other competitors. Our constraints are much more in raw materials and being able to scale up production so our constraints are not imposed upon us by competitors but rather the just imposed upon us by the realities of the supply chain and pulling up manufacturing capacity. So I mean as anyone knows who is try to order that order at Tesla. The demand for our cars is extremely high and the wait list is long. So our and this is not intentional. We are increasing production capacity as fast as humanly possible. So that so relax that we really don't think about competition or we just think about how how do we address the limiting factors in the supply chain and in our own industrial capacity. We need to build the factories faster and then we need to look ahead to whatever the choke points are in the whole lithium ion battery supply chain from mining and refining to Catherine and abruption and cell formation. So can you can you can you set the record straight on one thing which is this issue about the layoffs. I think you said initially that Tesla 10 percent of the workforce will be cut then 10 percent of salaried would be cut then salaried would stay flat flat and overall headcount would go up. What is the number. I know there's already I think been a lawsuit about the 10 percent is is 10 percent the goal to reduce the workforce. So what is the number that we should think about or that you're planning. Yes. So is it Tesla is reducing the salaried workforce by roughly 10 percent over the next probably three months or so. The we expect to grow our hourly workforce. We're quite clear that we expect to grow our ISE hourly workforce but we will grow very fast with this on the salary side. And we grew a little too fast in some areas. And so it requires a reduction in salaried workforce to wear about two thirds hourly and one third salary. So I guess technically a 10 percent reduction in the salad workforce is only roughly a three three and a half percent reduction in total headcount. Now I think I think that number is important legally isn't it. Because I think people are trying to say if you if you're going to lay off 10 percent of your workforce you have even in America to make an announcement about that. We did make that announcement. Yes. Let's not read too much into a preemptive lawsuit that has no standing. That that that is the smallest lawsuit of minor consequence that just anything that related to Tesla gets big headlines. But it is whether it is you know a bicycle accident or something much more serious. So it is it seems like anything. You're slated if Tesla gets a lot of clicks whether for whether it is trivial or significant. I would put that lawsuit right here in the trivial category. So you know I think our head count will be higher in both salaried and obviously in hourly but in the short term of next few months. We expect to see I said roughly a 10 percent reduction in salary salaried workforce which is actually just really only three three and a half percent reduction in total headcount and not super material. So we jumped to that level that that third Elon Musk the the uncontroversial one in politics. You've indicated that the Florida governor Ron DeSantis is someone you could get behind if he ran for president. I wondered if you're still in that position and whether you would for instance think about supporting Donald Trump if he were to run. Well I was simply asked if there was if I decided on who I would be supporting in the next presidential race. And I said I had not yet decided if I would support. Then I was asked well who might you be leaning towards. I said possibly this answers. And now and now I'm asking you about Trump whether you would consider him. I think I'm undecided at this point on that election and I wanted you talked about putting money behind a super moderate super PAC in the US. And I wondered how much money do you think you're going to put into that. What kind of support would you push. I haven't decided on the amount but it would be some some non-trivial figure I think. I mean at least sort of on the order of non-trivial ways means a lot. All right. Non-trivial could mean a lot of money with you. I was guessing. Well I don't know. I've not decided on the exact amount but perhaps to be 20 or 25 million. Just on that issue I mean again you look at the sense of what the census says. You look at what Trump says and those sort of positions they again the people who make a large noise about China. And I wondered whether you thought that was also an issue for you in terms of business in China. Well no I don't think so. You're a brave man. Is it can I. Can I ask you you over the weekend. You you tweeted your support of one crypto currency. You've seen the kind of carnage that has been happening in crypto currencies at the moment. What is happening. And do you still think people should should invest. Or is it more selective. Approach. Well I have never said that people should invest in crypto. In the case of Tesla Space X myself. Yeah. Basic science hasn't mixed up all did buy some bitcoin but it's a small percentage of our total cash and near cash assets. So it's not a less significant. I also bought some dogecoin and Tesla accepts doge coin for some merchandise and space x with the same and. And I intend to personally support dogecoin because I just saw a lot of people who are not that wealthy who have encouraged me to buy and support dogecoin. So I'm responding to those people just people. And I want more from the factory. It's a sexual Tesla. They've asked me to support those coins so I'm doing so. Because Dogecoin I think has come down a lot. It's down about 80 90 percent or it's down a lot. And that's the reason why you you came out and said that you still thought there was value. The. I said ISE for Dogecoin and I'm during the. Can I ask you one last question is I noticed that you you're going to unleash a humanoid robot to be unveiled on September the 30th. I wonder if there's anything more you could tell us about that. Well I hope with it we will have an interesting prototype to show people that we're a very talented team at Tesla that I'm working with closely to have a prototype humanoid robot ready by the end of September. And I think we are travelling to that point so that there'll be a few other exciting things that we talk about it. The Tesla idea. But I really want to you know we have these sort of everyday events to just emphasize that Tesla is a lot more than a car company and that we are in my view the leading real world a complain that exists. Well you were you. Did you see it. All the the drama about the Google wire tweet web people at least one engineer thought that what was happening in terms of that machinery was closer to humans than had been seen before and quite worrying had a personality. Is that something that you think about at all and or you worry about. I think I think we should be concerned about. I am and I said for a long time that I think this ought to be and a regulatory agency that oversees artificial intelligence for the public good. And I think just as there's anything that for anything the weather is a risk to the public. Whether that saves the Food and Drug Administration or Federal Aviation Administration Communications Commission whether it's a public risk or a public good at stake there. It's good to have sort of a government referee and a regulatory body. And I think we should have that for a I and we don't currently. And that would be my recommendation. You know Musk you've been incredibly kind with your time. Not least because I think it's 3:00 a.m. and they're not in in the morning. And yes it's been a heroic performance. Thank you very much for talking to the Guitar Economic Forum and talking to Bloomberg. Thank you very much. Welcome. Thanks for having me.

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Tesla CEO Musk at Qatar Economic Forum: Full Interview

Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk discusses his planned acquisition of Twitter Inc., his view that a US recession is likely, and the outlook for job cuts at Tesla. In an interview with Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief John Micklethwait at the Qatar Economic Forum, he also comments on supply constraints and whether he would support Donald Trump in the next US presidential election. Qatar’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Qatar Investment Authority and Investment Promotion Agency Qatar are the underwriters of the Qatar Economic Forum, Powered by Bloomberg. Media City Qatar is the host organization. (Source: Bloomberg)

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