Inside Elon Musk's Mind: The Grand Plan Rewriting Humanity's Future [Part 1]

Hello, this is Hamamoto from TIMEWELL. What an era we live in. Today I want to talk about Elon Musk — the man of the moment, for better or worse. What is going on inside his head? I'd like to explore that from my own perspective.

I own a Tesla Model 3 and have been a Tesla shareholder for about eight years now. A few years ago, when I visited Austin, Texas, I experienced firsthand the astonishing performance of the FSD (Full Self-Driving) system built into the Model 3. I've also invested in his other major venture, X (formerly Twitter), believing in its transformational potential. I invested in Square (now Block) when Jack Dorsey was at the helm — but not everything goes smoothly. Through experiences encompassing both successes and failures, I've tried to observe up close, as one investor and one user, the future that Elon Musk is drawing.

He is not merely the CEO of an EV maker or the president of a space company launching rockets. Tesla, SpaceX, Neuralink, xAI, and The Boring Company. These ventures, which appear to be separate dots, are all connected to a single grand vision. Could it be a sweeping plan to update the OS of humanity itself and push civilization to the next stage? In this two-part series, I will draw on information I have gathered along with my personal analysis to try to unravel what is inside Elon Musk's head. Where are his individual ventures ultimately heading? Come join me on this journey to find the answer.

Tesla: An AI Robotics Company That Happens to Be Called an Automaker

For many people, the strong image of Tesla is "an electric vehicle (EV) company." But its true nature goes far beyond the frame of a simple automaker. What Tesla is truly aiming for is using AI and robotics to fundamentally transform every system in society — from energy production and consumption all the way to human labor.

A Gateway to a Sustainable Future

The mission Tesla has championed since its founding is to "accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy." To achieve that, they have deployed products including not just EVs but the home battery "Powerwall," the large-scale energy storage system "Megapack," and the solar panel "Solar Roof." These are all important pieces for breaking dependence on fossil fuels and building a society grounded in renewable energy.

However, in December 2025, Musk announced he would change this mission to "Amazing Abundance" [1]. This means the scale of ambition has moved up a level — not merely "be kind to the Earth" but "let's make humanity extraordinarily wealthy through technology!" The keys to this "amazing abundance" are FSD (Full Self-Driving) and the humanoid robot "Optimus."

FSD and Robotaxis: The Transportation Revolution and Cars That Become "Assets"

The FSD I experienced in Austin truly felt like a preview of the future. The smooth acceleration, deceleration, and natural steering that resembled a human driver showed that AI was beginning to deeply understand the real world.

From 2025 through 2026, Tesla's FSD technology has evolved into the "FSD Supervised v14" line, dramatically improving its capabilities. In particular, the shift to an end-to-end neural network means that AI can now independently learn and execute the complex traffic judgment that was previously handled by programmed code. This has dramatically improved precision in handling situations difficult even for human drivers — such as responding to emergency vehicles and avoiding unexpected obstacles [2].

And the vision seen beyond the evolution of this FSD technology is the "robotaxi" concept. Musk has revealed plans to launch a service in Austin, Texas in the summer of 2025, expanding to all of North America in 2026 [3]. The concept includes not only the introduction of a dedicated two-seater vehicle "Cybercab," but also a "sharing economy" aspect in which existing Tesla owners offer their cars to the robotaxi network to generate revenue during hours when the car is not in use.

Musk has repeatedly said, "Once FSD is complete, Tesla vehicles will become 'assets' that generate revenue for their owners." Isn't that something? Cars changing from "money pits" to "hardworking partners." Truly a revolution in automotive history. A private car shifting from a "liability" that loses value the moment you buy it to an "asset" that generates money simply by owning it. If that happens, people's transportation costs will drop dramatically, and the urban transportation system — and even the structure of cities themselves — will undergo a major transformation.

Item	Plan / Target	Timing
FSD Version	FSD Supervised v14.2.2.5	Early 2026
Robotaxi Service Launch	Austin, Texas	Summer 2025
	California	End of 2025
	All of North America	Planned 2026
Dedicated Vehicle "Cybercab"	Mass production begins	Planned 2026

Optimus: The Humanoid That Overturns the Concept of Labor

Tesla's ambitions don't stop at automating transportation. Their next target is "automating labor." The lead role in that belongs to the humanoid robot "Optimus."

When the concept was first announced in 2021, many doubted its feasibility. But in just a few years since, Optimus has evolved at a remarkable pace. The latest prototypes can dexterously pick up eggs, fold T-shirts, and even do yoga poses. This is because Tesla is applying the advanced AI technology cultivated through FSD — particularly the neural networks for recognizing and manipulating real-world objects — to a humanoid body.

Musk's plans are grand. In 2025, he plans to first operate 5,000 Optimus units on his own assembly lines to automate simple and repetitive tasks [4]. Furthermore, in Q2 of 2026, he announced plans to convert the production lines for "Model S" and "Model X" at the Fremont, California factory into Optimus manufacturing lines to build a mass production system [5].

Over the long term, Musk is aiming to offer Optimus at $20,000 to $30,000 per unit — "cheaper than a car" — and ultimately produce 1 million per year, and eventually even 100 million [4][6].

What if the era of one Optimus per household — or even one per person — arrived? Society would be literally turned upside down. Humans would be freed from dangerous tasks and tedious repetitive work, and labor shortages would be resolved. As Musk says, an era of "amazing abundance" might arrive in which productive activities are almost fully automated and products are produced in limitless quantities given only an energy supply. Optimus is not merely a replacement for factory workers — it holds the potential to be active in all aspects of society: housework, nursing care, construction, disaster relief, and more.

Item	Details
2025 Target	5,000 units operating in own factories
Production Line Conversion	Model S/X lines at Fremont factory repurposed (Q2 2026)
Target Price	$20,000–$30,000 per unit
Long-term Production Target	1 million/year, ultimately 100 million
Core Capabilities	Object manipulation, walking, task learning, cooperative work with humans

Dojo and Semiconductor Strategy: Building the AI Brain In-House

Supporting ambitious AI projects such as FSD and Optimus is the supercomputer "Dojo" that Tesla develops in-house, along with the AI chips that serve as its brain.

AI training requires enormous computational power. Currently, that market is nearly monopolized by NVIDIA's GPUs — but Tesla, unwilling to have another company hold the bottleneck of AI development, chose to develop chips and computers optimized for AI training.

At one point, the Dojo project faced an uncertain future, with development of a next-generation version reportedly suspended [7]. However, in January 2026, Musk declared the restart of the "Dojo3" project, citing steady progress in the design of the next-generation AI chip "AI5" [8].

Musk's words cut to the core of Tesla's semiconductor strategy: not merely pursuing performance comparable to NVIDIA, but achieving overwhelming power efficiency and cost efficiency. With the enormous demand from its own EVs and robots as a backdrop, Tesla is trying to maximize scale merits by building the most mass-produced AI chips in the world.

To accelerate that strategy, Tesla is strengthening its semiconductor development structure in South Korea — establishing a new organization in Hwaseong, where Samsung Electronics has a major base, and actively recruiting chip design specialists [9]. This is thought to reflect a goal of deepening cooperation with Samsung Electronics, utilizing cutting-edge manufacturing processes to stably secure high-performance, low-cost chips. Tesla is trying to achieve vertical integration over everything — from the semiconductors that serve as AI's brain, to the robots and vehicles that AI drives, to the energy infrastructure that powers their activities.

Chip Generation	Performance Target	Power Consumption	Notes
AI5 (Next-Gen)	Single unit at NVIDIA Hopper class, 2 units at Blackwell class	~250W	Design in progress
Dojo3	Space-based AI computing capable	—	Project restarted
Reference: NVIDIA H100	—	~700W	Current mainstream GPU

SpaceX: The Transportation Revolution Bringing Space Within Reach

While Tesla drives the industrial revolution on the ground, SpaceX is pushing a transportation revolution in space. These two companies appear to be in completely different businesses, but within Musk's grand plan, they are indispensable entities that complement each other.

The Impact of Reusable Rockets

SpaceX's greatest achievement is making rocket reusability practical. The first-stage booster of what was once a throw-away rocket now lands vertically on a drone ship on the ground or at sea, is serviced, and is launched again. This revolutionary technology has dramatically reduced the cost of transportation to space.

The main rocket "Falcon 9" now handles launches at the astonishing pace of once every few days, dominating the commercial satellite launch market. And the next-generation giant spacecraft "Starship" is the vision beyond that. This enormous rocket, more than 120 meters long, can carry more than 100 people and more than 100 tons of cargo at once to low Earth orbit and further to the Moon and Mars. Starship is also being developed with the aim of full reusability, and with the success of its ninth flight test in May 2025, its realization is steadily approaching [10].

It is said that once Starship is complete, the cost of space transportation will drop by another order of magnitude or two. If that happens, space will no longer belong only to a handful of nations and large companies — it will become a new economic sphere accessible to anyone.

Starlink: The Satellite Internet Connecting the World

Another pillar of SpaceX is the satellite internet service "Starlink." Deploying thousands to tens of thousands of small satellites in low Earth orbit to provide high-speed internet connectivity anywhere on Earth, this service has already acquired many users worldwide and grown into a business generating the majority of SpaceX's revenue [11].

The value of Starlink is not merely delivering internet to mountain areas and remote islands with no coverage. Starlink plays an extremely important role for Tesla's FSD. The enormous driving data collected from Tesla vehicles worldwide is sent in real time to servers, and the latest trained AI models are distributed to vehicles. By having Starlink's global network complement this data exchange — not relying solely on ground-based communication networks — the evolution of FSD will accelerate further. Similarly, Starlink will be indispensable infrastructure for remotely controlling and updating the Optimus robot fleet deployed worldwide.

SpaceX Business	Overview	Role in Musk's Overall Plan
Falcon 9	Reusable rocket, dominating commercial launch market	Dramatic reduction in space transportation costs
Starship	Fully reusable giant spacecraft over 120m long	Mass transportation means to Moon and Mars
Starlink	Low-orbit satellite internet network	Global communication foundation for FSD and Optimus

Part 1 Summary: Infrastructure for the Future Being Built on the Ground and in Low Orbit

As we have seen, Elon Musk is simultaneously pushing forward, at overwhelming speed, a revolution in energy and labor on the ground through Tesla — and a revolution in transportation and communication to space through SpaceX.

Tesla is no longer merely an automaker. It is a giant technology company pursuing vertical integration of AI, robotics, semiconductors, and energy — aiming to redefine humanity's productive activities themselves. Meanwhile, SpaceX is building the foundation for the coming space economy by democratizing access to space and building a global communication network.

These are each independently enormous ventures, while at the same time all of them are interconnected — stepping stones toward a single great goal. So what is Musk trying to achieve atop the grand infrastructure he has built on the ground and in low orbit?

In Part 2, we will unravel how his gaze extends even further — toward AI development in space and the even grander vision of making humanity a multi-planetary species. His true aim may be to free humanity from the cradle of Earth and evolve civilization itself to the next dimension.

References

[1] Elon Musk Announces Change of Tesla Mission to "Amazing Abundance," Speaking of New Vision on X - EVcafe (https://evcafe.jp/article20251223/) [2] 2025.45.10 (FSD 14.2.2.5) Official Tesla Release Notes - Software Updates (https://www.notateslaapp.com/software-updates/version/2025.45.10/release-notes) [3] Tesla to Expand Autonomous Driving Taxis "Nationwide from 2026," Driverless from the Start | Autonomous Driving Lab (https://jidounten-lab.com/u_52364) [4] Tesla's Robot, Optimus: Everything We Know | Built In (https://builtin.com/robotics/tesla-robot) [5] Tesla Stock Rises as Musk Announces AI Shift — Ending Model S and X to Produce Robot "Optimus" | Forbes JAPAN (https://forbesjapan.com/articles/detail/90735) [6] US and China Spark Over AI Humanoids — Musk Eyes Production of 100 Million Tesla Units - Nikkei Business (https://business.nikkei.com/atcl/gen/19/00711/111700021/) [7] Tesla Dissolves AI Training Semiconductor Development Team, to Repurpose Automotive Chips - Nikkei (https://www.nikkei.com/article/DGXZQOUC263CN0W5A820C2000000/) [8] Elon Musk restarts Dojo3 'space' supercomputer project as AI5 chip design gets in 'good shape' - Tom's Hardware (https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/supercomputers/elon-musk-restarts-dojo3-space-supercomputer-project-as-ai5-chip-design-gets-in-good-shape-will-be-first-tesla-built-supercomputer-to-feature-all-in-house-hardware-with-no-help-from-nvidia) [9] Tesla's South Korea move points to deepening semiconductor alliance with Samsung - DIGITIMES (https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20251017PD221/tesla-samsung-automotive-chip-fab-south-korea.html) [10] SpaceX - Updates (https://www.spacex.com/updates) [11] SpaceX Prioritizes Building "Self-Sustaining City" on Moon's Surface = Musk | Reuters (https://jp.reuters.com/markets/global-markets/G2JR3HFSDBLGDCNTFU77KSVBRQ-2026-02-09/)