Opinion: Dr. Merav Ozair, Senior Advisor for Blockchain and AI.

Elon Musk and Peter Diamandis support the idea that “everything will be free.” They claim to believe that an abundance of artificial intelligence will end poverty and ensure universal high income.

Other members of the megatech ecosystem mention the abundance to come. Demis Hassabisfor example, he claims that artificial intelligence could spark a “renaissance” of “radical abundance.”

Politicians on World Economic Forum 2026 Musk’s vision was liked in Davos. They were delighted that their economic problems would soon be “unleashed.” This story is quite compelling. Who doesn’t like getting things for free?

What does this really mean? Would all economic activity have no costs? Would all corporations become altruistic and not seek profit?

Let’s unpack the narrative.

The cost of production may be inexpensive, but never zero

Let’s put things into perspective. In the era of abundance of artificial intelligence, products and services will not appear “out of thin air”. They would still need labor, materials, energy and infrastructure.

Advances in artificial intelligence and other recent technologies could lead to very inexpensive energy and highly automated production. This evolution will bring the marginal cost of most digital and even physical goods close to zero.

This is due to three main factors. The first is work automation, in which machines and artificial intelligence handle almost all production, logistics and many services. The second is advanced AI manufacturing and distribution, such as 3D printing, robotics, and AI-based logistics systems, which drastically reduce waste and inventory, making it “enough for everyone” from a technical perspective. And finally, energy abundance – whether fusion or ultra-cheap solar power – makes energy so affordable that it is no longer a bottleneck.

Since energy underlies everything physical, all other costs fall.

The plans are already ready. The priority now is Elon Musk lunar manufacturing and artificial intelligence, and the goal is over 1,000 gigawatts of solar energy. Using solar energy instead of nuclear energy will reduce energy costs to almost zero. The catch: the initial cost of creating infrastructure on the Moon is very high and would require overcoming significant challenges.

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Under these conditions, it is likely that educational resources will become somewhat free to the user because they are generated by artificial intelligence and can be infinitely replicated once the system is built. Much of healthcare becomes incredibly inexpensive when the right infrastructure of artificial intelligence and robots is in place.

If at the level of physics and engineering the real bottlenecks – energy and automation – abound, costs collapse but do not disappear completely.

Infrastructure is the missing layer that is not talked about

Robotics and energy must operate at scale and at high speed to provide “abundance” of everything for everyone. This requires infrastructure.

Automation and robotics work on what Jensen Haung calls “artificial intelligence factories”. It is an artificial intelligence infrastructure, representing a shift towards treating the development of artificial intelligence as an industrial process, enabling organizations to continuously train and refine artificial intelligence models to raise security and efficiency.

These are specialized, high-performance computing data centers whose mission is to “manufacture” intelligence by transforming raw data into trained models and artificial intelligence tokens, rather than simply storing the data. Using advanced GPUs and massive, interconnected infrastructure, they power AI applications such as autonomous vehicles, robotics and generative artificial intelligence.

AI factories are steep. They need a lot of money for construction and operation. Companies that have already established the infrastructure will continue to grow and improve. Nvidia, for example, is five times more profitable than IBM was in the 1980s, employing just one-tenth the staff. Productivity and profits will raise as artificial intelligence significantly increases efficiency. Investments will go to those who have AI models, platforms and especially infrastructure.

This will lead to the greatest concentration of wealth in history.

The main players are technology giants such as Nvidia, AWS and SpaceX. They will continue to dominate the market, making it tough for newcomers to compete.

Governments are also involved. China is using its immense solar power capacity to fuel an energy-hungry artificial intelligence boom. This creates a unique “AI and energy” ecosystem. Here, artificial intelligence optimizes the production of renewable energy, and solar energy supports data centers. China is seen as a leader in the operate of renewable energy.

Cheap energy is not inexpensive

Energy is the fuel that powers AI factories, which are the lifeblood of all the robotics, automation, and AI applications that will generate abundance. Energy powers infrastructure, and infrastructure powers AI applications. Therefore, the real bottleneck is energy. Without inexpensive energy, this “free” theory fails.

Currently, the basic form of energy used to power infrastructure is electricity. China is aggressively integrating renewable energy into its infrastructure, and other regions are expanding the operate of renewable energy in data centers as well. Electricity generation and grid performance for AI-scale infrastructure is very steep and unscalable. To achieve abundance on a gigantic scale, energy must be very inexpensive and scalable.

What are the options?

Fission energy is a type of nuclear energy. It is fully mature, provides stable power, but produces radioactive waste. This carries nuclear proliferation risks and security concerns related to meltdowns. It is cheaper than current sources of fossil fuel-based electricity, but it still has significant costs and, like other sources of electricity, it is finite and not scalable.

Fusion energy combines delicate atoms to produce energy that mimics the sun, while conventional nuclear energy splits bulky atoms. Fusion offers almost unlimited, cleaner energy without long-lasting high-level waste.

Fusion is inherently safer and does not pose the risk of an uncontrolled chain reaction.

However, it should be noted that splitting is currently used. Creating nuclear fusion for energy is extremely steep, requiring upfront investments in the hundreds of billions of dollars, and is still experimental and likely several decades away from large-scale commercial application.

Unlike nuclear fission, nuclear fusion is scalable. It’s inexpensive, but it doesn’t cost zero. Someone has to bear the initial costs of building the infrastructure, creating it, and then maintaining it.

Elon Musk will fly to the Moon

Lunar solar energy provides enough energy without atmospheric problems. However, its launch, construction and maintenance in a vacuum are associated with high costs. Musk’s plan is to move all production, including the artificial intelligence factory, to the Moon.

The moon has low gravity and plenty of resources, making it the cheapest place for AI infrastructure.

Robots will terraform and build infrastructure. People will come to oversee and develop, and AI data centers will power the space economy.

With Starlink, SpaceX, Optimus, and xAI robots, Musk is in a mighty position to achieve this.

However, machines to produce advanced AI chips must reach the Moon. These bus-sized machines require very precise conditions.

The solution is a recent method called Atomically Precise Manufacturing (APM). This builds atom by atom and is consistent with Musk’s “first principle” thinking.

If successful, this could unlock unlimited solar energy and raw materials from the Moon and asteroids. There would be no thermal constraints or atmospheric disturbances.

This could lead to unlimited AI at low cost. Experts say that if lunar production is successful, it could create a trillion-dollar or even hundreds of trillion-dollar opportunity.

Who will benefit most from this hundred trillion dollar opportunity? Will it be divided fairly?

The supple prison of “freedom”

In the case of centralized infrastructure and systems, the terms of cooperation are set by the owner of the infrastructure. Highly centralized systems may provide extensive “free” services, but in return they often require extensive control over speech, traffic, data, and economic choices. Non-authoritarian welfare states can trade some individual autonomy for security and guaranteed services. Many “free” digital services today are financed through surveillance, profiling and behavioral manipulation – the real price is your data and attention.

In a world wealthy in artificial intelligence, infrastructure may be owned by the government. May be owned by a corporation. It could be owned through a public-private partnership. Either way, the infrastructure is centralized, and centralized power will dictate the terms of distribution – how the abundance of AI will be distributed, who will receive what, and under what conditions. If they want, they can suddenly “turn off the valve” and nothing will be distributed to either the individual or the group. Your dependence on their services becomes a “soft prison” devoid of autonomy and sovereignty.

This could be a hundred-trillion-dollar opportunity, but the owner of the centralized infrastructure will get the lion’s share and dictate what goes to the masses.

They say that if something is “free”, you are the product. This remains true in a world of pure abundance. In this world, the product is your sovereignty.

Opinion: Dr. Merav Ozair, Senior Advisor for Blockchain and AI.