Elon Musk says he should have “focused on AI a little sooner:” Axios

Elon Musk says that he should have “focused on AI a little sooner," cutting short his stint at the White House last year, Axios reported on Saturday, citing a recent interview biographer Walter Isaacson conducted with the Tesla (TSLA) CEO.

Following a public spat with President Donald Trump, Musk formally left the administration in May 2025 after a 130-day tenure spearheading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which was involved in thousands of federal job cuts.

His business empire suffered as a result, with Tesla sales falling 13% during the first three months of 2025 as his political affiliations sparked a widespread public backlash against the billionaire investor throughout last year.

I "kinda got carried away, basically," Musk told Isaacson for a new podcast series, "The Builders with Walter Isaacson," premiering on Tuesday. He added that he ended up being "gone for too long" from his businesses.

"What I should have done," he said, "was be more in the background ... and probably only had it last for a month or two,” said Musk, who also leads the newly IPO’d rocket, satellite, and AI company SpaceX (SPCX).

"I should have gone back and focused on AI a little sooner than I did." He added. Musk also commented on the U.S. budget deficit, which he had previously said would increase because of Trump's "Big, Beautiful Bill.”

There's "no way we were gonna solve the deficit from within the government," Musk said, adding, "The only way we're going to solve the national debt is with AI and robots."

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