Larry Fink opened by telling the room the applause was weak and asked them to do it again, then thanked everyone and said, “we’re going to make this interesting.” He asked how many quotes people would want after the session, got “5” as the answer, then greeted the audience and said it had been “an amazing week” in Davos.
Larry said the World Economic Forum is there to have conversations people will agree and disagree with, and said the goal is “understandings” and “resolution.” He pointed to “today’s result with a peace agreement earlier today” as part of why WEF exists.
Larry then introduced Elon Musk and said Elon came “all the way from California” to be there, and Elon replied, “You’re most welcome.” Elon joked about hearing the formation of a “Peace Summit” and asked if that was “P-I-E-C-E,” then said, “a little piece of Greenland, a little piece of Venezuela. We got one. All we want is peace.”
Larry said he’s been CEO of BlackRock since it went public and said BlackRock’s compounded return to shareholders has been 21%. He compared that to Tesla, saying since Elon took Tesla public, its compounded return has been 43%.
Larry called it an “advertisement,” especially aimed at Europeans, arguing more citizens should invest in growth and in their countries. He said if pension funds had invested with Elon when Tesla went public, the returns would have been huge for those funds “side by side with Elon and the growth.”
Larry called it a “spectacular return,” and said he doesn’t think there’s any other company as large as Tesla today with that compounded return. Elon said “thank you,” called it “a good measurement,” and credited “an incredible team at Tesla.”
Larry said he wanted to “get into the dirt” on technology and “the meaningful component” of what’s possible. He listed the areas he wanted to hit: AI, robotics, energy, space, and progress that comes down to “engineering discipline, scale, execution.”
He told Elon that few people have the experience and fortitude to confront these issues “head on,” not just ideas but execution across many technologies, and said that’s why he wanted this dialogue in Davos.
Larry then told Elon he’s building in AI, robotics, space, and energy all at the same time, and asked what those efforts have in common from an engineering standpoint.
Elon said they’re all “very difficult technology challenges,” then said the overall goal of his companies is to “maximize the future of civilization,” meaning maximizing the probability civilization has a great future, and to “expand consciousness beyond Earth.”
Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/elon-musk-makes-surprise-davos-debut/