Elon Musk Thinks We Are 'Sleepwalking Our Way Into World War III'

Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of the electric car company Tesla, is worried that the war between Russia and Ukraine, and Israel and Gaza could lead to World War III.

Musk made the statement in an online discussion on X. He warned that "civilisation itself may be at stake".

He added that the West might just be sleepwalking its way into World War III. "We need to figure out peace in Ukraine, and I think we need to restore normal relations with Russia," Musk said.

"World War III is a civilizational risk that we may not recover from. So we need to prioritise avoiding World War III; that's what actually matters," he said.

"Russia and China have started doing joint military exercises, I don't know how many people are aware of this," Musk said on Monday. "We are sleepwalking our way into World War III with one foolish decision after the other."

The virtual discussion was hosted by David Sacks, with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on the panel. He also called for the United States to ensure that Russia does not get closer to Iran and China.

He also proposed holding an internationally supervised "vote" in eastern Ukraine to determine if these regions would wish to be part of Ukraine or Russia. He went on to claim that some parts of Ukraine would "definitely" want to be part of Russia.

Musk had earlier come under fire for restricting Ukraine's access to its Starlink satellite internet service for military purposes.

He later issued a clarification, saying that he was only preventing World War III with this move. The clarification came after a Twitter user asked him to restore the full functionality of the Starlink system so Ukrainian troops on the frontlines could communicate more effectively.

Musk then responded by saying that he would not allow escalation of the conflict that may lead to World War III.

SpaceX had limited Ukraine's access to its satellite internet service after reports emerged that the latter was using it to control drones and target Russian positions.

This isn't the first time that the SpaceX owner has expressed fears about the possibility of World War III. In 2015, he claimed that we cannot discount the possibility of a third World War".

"You know, in 1912 they were proclaiming a new age of peace and prosperity, saying that it was a golden age, war was over. And then you had World War I followed by World War II followed by the Cold War...we need to acknowledge that there's certainly a possibility of a third World War, and if that does occur it could be far worse than anything that's happened before," he told GQ.