‘Peace or piece of Greenland?’ Musk jabs at Trump’s new board in Davos debut

Tech billionaire Elon Musk outlined ambitious plans for Tesla during his first appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, including selling humanoid robots as early as next year, while sharing his views on artificial intelligence and space travel. However, it was his subtle dig at US President Donald Trump and his ambitions for Greenland that drew particular attention.

After years of criticising Davos as elitist and disconnected from ordinary people, the world’s richest man appeared in an interview with World Economic Forum interim co-chair Larry Fink, where he appeared to mock Trump’s self-styled “Board of Peace.”

Musk quipped that the initiative might have been better named “piece” rather than “peace.”

“I heard about the formation of the Peace Summit, and I thought: is that piece or… a little piece of Greenland, a little piece of Venezuela?” he said, adding: “All we want is peace.”

Chaired by Trump, the Board of Peace was initially conceived to oversee the rebuilding of war-torn Gaza, but its charter does not limit its mandate to the Palestinian territory. According to the preamble sent to invited countries, the body aims to promote stability, restore lawful governance and secure lasting peace in conflict-affected or threatened regions, AFP reported.

At Davos, Musk was among the most prominent business leaders speaking at the annual gathering. He predicted that robots would one day outnumber humans, potentially triggering a major economic boom, and joked about space travel.

“People ask me, do I want to die on Mars? And I’m like: yes, but not on impact,” he said.

Musk also claimed the rapid rise of artificial intelligence would soon produce systems “smarter than any human,” possibly by the end of this year or no later than next year.

His appearance came as governments and regulators from Europe to Asia move to restrict sexually explicit content generated by his xAI chatbot Grok on X, with investigations, bans and calls for stronger safeguards underway.