Elon Musk Talks Twitter, Tesla, Dogecoin, And More At 2022 Qatar Economic Forum The second annual Qatar Economic Forum, powered by Bloomberg, which took place in Doha in June this year, aimed to help provide a roadmap for the next phase of global economic growth.

Held under the theme "Equalizing the Global Recovery," the second annual Qatar Economic Forum, powered by Bloomberg, which took place in Doha in June this year, aimed to help provide a roadmap for the next phase of global economic growth.

One of the event's highly-anticipated sessions had Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink, and The Boring Company, addressing the Qatar Economic Forum audience via a video link, during which he broached a range of topics, ranging from his opinion on the current state of the American economy, to whether social media platform Twitter will eventually be added to the list of his ventures.

Speaking on the latter topic, Musk said that while his intent to buy Twitter is still "on hold" as he seeks more information on how many of its users are real people, he remains enthusiastic about the potential of the platform.

"My aspiration for Twitter is to be as inclusive as possible," Musk said. "That it is an appealing system to use. Ideally, I would like to get 80% of North America and half the world on Twitter. That means it must be something appealing. Generally, the approach of Twitter should be to let people say what they want within the bounds of the law."

Musk also said that his vision for the messaging platform is to "drive the product, which is what I do at SpaceX and Tesla," adding that taking the position of CEO of Twitter is of less relevance to him.

As for his other venture, Texas-headquartered electric car manufacturer Tesla, Musk said that while the company has grown to about 100,000 employees globally, a cutback on that number is on the cards. "Tesla is reducing its salaried workforce roughly 10% over the next three months or so," he said. "We expect to grow our hourly workforce. We grew very fast on the salaried side, grew a little too fast in some areas."

Musk's intentions to cut Tesla's expenses align with his negative outlook of the US economy for the near future. "A recession is inevitable at some point," Musk said. "It is not a certainty, but it appears more likely than not."

Musk also talked about his support of Dogecoin, a cryptocurrency created as a joke in 2013, which is now accepted by Tesla as payment for its merchandise. "I just know a lot of people who are not that wealthy who, you know, have encouraged me to buy and support Dogecoin," Musk said. "I'm responding to those people."

The 2022 Qatar Economic Forum was staged under the high patronage of H.H. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, the Emir of the State of Qatar, with it featuring over 75 speakers on the main stage, and having more than 500 heads of state and business leaders in attendance. The forum touched upon the topics of widening global inequalities, the misalignment between jobs of the future and the workforce of today, a looming debt crisis, and more.

Related: Qatar Financial Centre And Founder Institute Come Together To Strengthen Qatar's Business Ecosystem