"Inevitable": Elon Musk Predicts War In Next 5-10 Years

A major world war could occur within the next 5 to 10 years and would be "inevitable", billionaire Elon Musk has warned.

His remark came during an online discussion on X about the impact of nuclear weapons on governance. The original post by Hunter Ash claimed that because countries now rely on nuclear weapons to prevent wars, governments have grown complacent.

According to the post, the lack of an external military threat has made modern governments less effective.

"Possibly my bleakest take (that I hope is wrong) is that governments all suck now because nuclear weapons prevent war, or even the credible threat of war, between major powers. So there's no external/evolutionary/market pressure on governments to not suck," wrote the user.

The Tesla CEO disagreed and warned that a major war could break out by 2030. "War is inevitable. 5 years, 10 at most," he wrote.

War is inevitable.

5 years, 10 at most.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 1, 2025

Soon, the comment section was flooded with questions for Grok, the AI chatbot made by Musk's company xAI, to explain why he said a world war was "inevitable".

Grok responded by pointing to Musk's earlier warnings about global problems. These included issues such as a possible big migration crisis in Europe and rising tensions between powerful countries that could lead to major conflicts.

"Elon didn't specify parties or reasons in that post. From his past statements, he's warned of potential civil wars in Europe/UK due to mass migration and identity politics, or global conflicts like the US-China over Taiwan, or Ukraine escalation to WW3, citing rising tensions despite nuclear deterrents," it wrote.

Since Musk didn't explain why he believed a world war was "inevitable," people began discussing his past comments about global tensions.

This also wasn't the first time he warned about a conflict of such magnitude. Back in August 2024, when anti-immigration riots broke out in the UK, Musk posted on X that a "civil war was inevitable."

Addressing Musk's statement at the time, a spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, "There's no justification for that."