Rewrites throughout with Musk quotes
Musk expects Tesla's self-driving tech approval in Europe within weeks
Predicts robots will outnumber humans, boosting economic growth
Musk, previously critical of WEF as elitist, makes Davos debut
By Muvija M, Deborah Mary Sophia and Akash Sriram
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Elon Musk marked his last-minute Davos debut on Thursday with a critique of U.S. solar tariffs and aggressive targets for Tesla, including humanoid robot sales next year, as well as flagging European approval for self-driving tech within weeks.
After years of describing the World Economic Forum's annual meeting as elitist, unaccountable and disconnected from ordinary people, the world's richest man was interviewed by World Economic Forum (WEF) interim co-chair Larry Fink.
The BlackRock CEO expressed his admiration for Musk at the start of the wide-ranging discussion, which covered the future of robots and AI, the economic benefits of reusable rockets and Musk's childhood fascination with science fiction.
Musk has become more prominent in recent years, driven by his proximity to U.S. President Donald Trump and his stewardship of firms including Starlink-owner SpaceX, social media platform X and artificial intelligence startup, xAI.
Breaking ranks with Trump on renewable energy, Musk said the United States could produce enough solar power to meet all of its electricity needs, including booming demand from the proliferation of Big Tech's power-hungry data centers.
"You could take a small corner of Utah, Nevada or New Mexico - a very small percentage of the area of the U.S. - to generate all of the electricity that the U.S. uses," he added.
"Unfortunately, the tariff barriers for solar are extremely high and that makes the economics of deploying solar artificially high," Musk said.
Trump has been openly critical of clean energy sources while encouraging oil majors to drill more for oil and gas.
His freeze on approvals for major onshore wind and solar projects has left thousands of megawatts of capacity in limbo at a critical time for the U.S. as it rushes to secure enough power to meet soaring AI-driven requirements.
Musk also said he expects Tesla to receive approval for its Full Self-Driving advanced driver assistance system in Europe and China by next month - which would be a significant milestone as the company looks to monetize the technology outside of the U.S.
Among the highest profile executives speaking at the Swiss mountain resort this week, Musk predicted robots will eventually outnumber humans, leading to a huge economic boom, and joked about traveling to Mars.
"People ask me do I want to die on Mars, and I'm like: 'yes, but not on impact','" he said towards the end of the 30-minute session, drawing laughter from the audience.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram and Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Alex Richardson, Saumyadeb Chakrabarty and Alexander Smith)
((Chandni.shah@thomsonreuters.com;))
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