Elon Musk is again pointing to humanoid robots as one of the keys to a future where the world produces far more than it does today.
In a new post on X, Musk replied “Amazing abundance for all!” to a post from Midjourney founder David Holz, who imagined a future where millions of humanoid robots work around the clock to build cities at a speed that would be impossible with human labor alone. Holz wrote that 5 million humanoid robots working 24/7 could build Manhattan in about six months, then asked people to imagine a world with 10 billion of them by 2045.
That is a huge claim, and obviously not something happening next week. But it fits neatly into Musk’s broader argument that AI and robotics will eventually push the world from scarcity toward abundance.
Clanks previously covered that idea in April, when Musk said AI and robotics could increase the output of goods and services by several orders of magnitude. In that post, Musk said “everyone can have a penthouse if they want,” pointing to a future where robots and AI dramatically reduce the limits on production, labor and material comfort.
The new post is shorter, but the message is the same. Musk is not just talking about robots as factory tools or Tesla products. He is talking about humanoid robots as a civilization-scale labor force.
That is why the Manhattan example caught attention. Building a city usually means years of planning, human crews, material logistics, regulations, heavy equipment, delays and budgets that never behave. Holz’s example imagines humanoid robots multiplying the available labor force so dramatically that construction, manufacturing and infrastructure could happen at a completely different speed.
Musk’s “abundance for all” reply turns that into a bigger economic vision. If robots can build, repair, move, clean, manufacture, farm and assemble at massive scale, then the cost of many goods and services could fall. In theory, that could make housing, transportation, products and daily services more widely available.
The big question is who actually gets that abundance.
The optimistic version is a world where humanoid robots do the dangerous, repetitive and physically exhausting work, while humans benefit from cheaper goods, better housing and more freedom. The less cheerful version is a world where productivity explodes but the benefits stay concentrated among the companies and people who own the machines.
That is the part the robot industry still has to answer. Building humanoids is one challenge. Distributing the gains fairly is another.
For now, Musk is making the case that humanoid robots are not just another tech product. They are the next major engine of economic output.
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