Elon Musk hails Xi Jinping’s leadership and Chinese AI capabilities on state media

Tesla CEO Elon Musk deemed Chinese President Xi Jinping "a great leader" and "very capable" in an interview with China's state broadcaster CCTV, hours before Xi departed for a US summit with President Donald Trump. Musk expressed admiration for China's economic growth and the average citizen's prosperity during Xi's leadership, crediting the President with driving the country's success.

Praising China's AI models, Musk highlighted China's "outstanding" performance per unit of compute, predicting that the country would surpass compute constraints in two to three years. Musk, who has significant business interests in China, also praised the Shanghai Tesla factory as an "incredible gem" and spoke highly of the country's manufacturing capabilities.

His comments follow US allegations against Chinese AI companies for allegedly copying US-developed models. Musk foresees a future with "at least a billion human robots within 10 years" and emphasized the importance of education to better communicate with AI. He encouraged visits to China, praising its high-speed bullet train and the country's grandeur.