Tesla earnings calls

Musk said Tesla assumes Optimus production at Fremont starts around late July or August 2026. He declined to predict 2026 volume and expects a slow start, with significant numbers in 2027.

“Start of production is, we're assuming, somewhere around the late July, August time frame”

Watch at 24:16 on the replay

Musk said Tesla will "soon" start Optimus production, without naming a month. Tesla's quarterly update says the first units go to its own Optimus Academy for training data, not to customers.

“we will soon start production with Optimus”

Watch at 8:48 on the replayDeck

Musk said Tesla has started what he called early production of Optimus on its high-volume line in Fremont, where most of a line built for about 1 million robots a year is installed. Tesla's third-quarter update says the bots coming off this line are the first production-quality ones it has made.

“started what I'd call early production on our high volume line”

Watch at 9:47 on the replayDeck

Musk said a second Optimus factory is being built at Giga Texas and will probably start production around summer 2027. Tesla's April update separately lists design capacities of 1 million robots a year at Fremont and 10 million a year long term at Texas, the volumes those plants are designed for.

“that will probably start production around summer next year”

Watch at 13:31 on the replayDeck

Musk described Optimus 4, to be built in Austin, as far more vertically integrated and aspirationally 10 million units a year, about ten times Optimus 3, while warning that scaling production is insanely difficult.

“aspirationally 10 million units a year”

Watch at 58:45 on the replay

Musk said it will take at least a year, maybe longer, to reach the Fremont line's rate of about 20,000 robots a week, because the design is still changing and the start of the ramp will be slow and bumpy.

“at least a year, maybe a little longer, get to that annualized rate”

Watch at 10:42 on the replay

Musk said Tesla is likely to start delivering Optimus to customers toward the end of 2027.

“likely to be towards the end of next year”

Watch at 1:02:29 on the replay

Musk said the Optimus 3 design is almost ready, but Tesla would rather unveil it closer to production because competitors copy reveals frame by frame. A mid-2026 reveal had been floated; no date was given.

“competitors do a frame-by-frame analysis”

Watch at 14:15 on the replay

Musk said Tesla may show a video of Optimus doing tasks that are not pre-programmed in a month or two.

“maybe a month or two for that to have a demo”

Watch at 26:39 on the replay

Musk called Optimus the hardest product Tesla has had to scale because every part is new. With no existing supply chain, Tesla built much of it itself, and he expects the early ramp to be flat and long.

“there is no supply chain”

Watch at 13:36 on the replay

Musk said the new AI5 chip, which has completed design, is expected to go into Optimus and the data center rather than urgently into cars.

“AI5 will go into Optimus and into the data center”

Watch at 34:46 on the replayDeck

Musk said AI5 will initially go into Optimus and that Tesla hopes it is in volume production in 2027. He called the next chip, AI6, potentially the best edge-computing chip in the world.

“AI5 will initially go into Optimus”

Watch at 1:00:41 on the replay

Note: Only the year (2027) and Optimus-first are confirmed. The recording is unclear on which part of 2027 he named, so we do not give one.

Musk said Tesla's AI5 chip, with about ten times the computing power of AI4, should go into Optimus around April 2027, and called it key to controlling the robot.

“will be in approximately April of next year”

Watch at 27:49 on the replay

Musk described a research chip fab at Giga Texas costing roughly $3 billion and capable of a few thousand wafers a month.

“a $3 billion-ish initiative”

Watch at 44:55 on the replayDeck

Musk said Tesla expects to announce the location of its Terafab chip factory soon, and that without it Optimus scaling would be limited by chip supply.

“announce the location soon”

Watch at 15:48 on the replayDeck

Musk said Tesla's research chip fab in Austin will start commissioning equipment in the first half of 2027, with a first test chip around May or June 2027. Tesla's update says the fab is under construction.

“first test chip just to see if we can make any chip at all”

Watch at 13:27 on the replayDeck

Musk said Tesla hopes to make a useful chip at volume around the third quarter of 2028, and that its Terafab chip plant is needed to scale Optimus because memory, packaging and logic chips would otherwise limit output.

“making some kind of useful chip at volume around Q3 of 2028”

Watch at 13:47 on the replay

Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla's VP of AI Software, said Optimus is built with human form and hands so it can learn from videos and factory workers, then from reinforcement learning with many robots practicing in the Optimus Academy.

“the Optimus Academy”

Watch at 34:52 on the replay

Musk said bootstrapping Optimus's training data needs on the order of 10,000 to 20,000 robots practicing on their own (self-play) in Tesla's Optimus Academy.

“on the order of 10 or 20,000 bots, and then have them do self-play”

Watch at 24:23 on the replay

Tesla's CFO said second-quarter capital spending roughly doubled from the first quarter ($5.8 billion versus $2.5 billion in the update) and will rise further in the second half. 2026 spending is expected to exceed $25 billion, including Optimus capacity and chip fabs.

“CapEx doubled sequentially”

Watch at 27:55 on the replayFiling

Musk said Terafab will need at least tens of billions of dollars in equipment through early 2028 and likely more than $100 billion over time, with the split between Tesla and SpaceX not yet decided. Tesla's 10-Q puts 2026 capital spending at more than $20 billion.

“not going to be less than tens of billions in capital equipment”

Watch at 50:01 on the replayFiling