The 52-year-old billionaire businessman had previously suggested super intelligent robots would emerge in 2029, but now he's warned it could be as soon as 2025.

During a live-streamed interview on his X platform, he said: “My guess is that we’ll have AI that is smarter than any one human probably around the end of next year.

“Last year it was chip-constrained.

“People could not get enough Nvidia chips. This year it’s transitioning to a voltage transformer supply. In a year or two, it’s just electricity supply.”

When he launched his own AI startup, xAI, the creator of the chatbot Grok - a rival to OpenAI's ChatGPT - in 2023, he raised concerns about a "Terminator future," referencing the 1984 sci-fi classic starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as the titular cyborg that is sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 Los Angeles, as an assassin known as a Terminator.

He said the advances could “pose profound risks to society and humanity”.

Musk said: “If I could press pause on AI or really advanced AI digital superintelligence I would. It doesn’t seem like that is realistic so xAI is essentially going to build an AI. In a good way, sort of hopefully.

“It’s actually important for us to worry about a Terminator future in order to avoid a Terminator future."

Echoing the plot of James Cameron’s movie – in which AI defence system Skynet obliterates humanity in a nuclear attack after deeming it a danger – Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, 68, said in a blog post that super-intelligent AI systems could “run out of control” and decide “humans are a threat”.