①Elon Musk stated that Tesla may begin selling its humanoid robot product 'Optimus' to the public by the end of next year; ②Musk predicted that by the end of 2026, these robots would be able to perform more complex tasks and emphasized that Tesla will only start sales when it ensures the product has extremely high reliability, safety, and a wide range of functions.
Cailian Press, January 23 (Editor Zhaohao Zhao) Global richest person and Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently stated that Tesla might begin selling its humanoid robot 'Optimus' to the public by the end of next year.
On Thursday local time (January 22), at a speech during the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Musk said that Tesla is already using some Optimus units in factories to perform simple tasks.
He predicted that by the end of 2026, these robots would be able to 'perform more complex tasks.'
Musk stated that Tesla will only officially sell to the public when it is 'confident that the product has extremely high reliability, extremely high safety, and an extremely broad range of functionality.'
These latest statements provide a clearer timeline for this future business line – although Musk often emphasizes the enormous potential of Optimus, his previous comments on production schedules and goals have been relatively vague.
During the earnings call in January 2025, he mentioned that his 'very rough estimate' was that Tesla would begin delivering Optimus robots to other companies in the second half of 2026.
In a conversation with Blackrock CEO Larry Fink, Musk also discussed various topics, including data centers in space, autonomous taxis, power supply bottlenecks, etc., stating:
It is expected that the production of robots will meet all human needs, and there will be 'billions' of humanoid robots in the future.
Robots will be able to perform caregiving tasks. The cost of artificial intelligence is plummeting and will become very low.
The limiting factor for AI deployment is electricity supply. The production of AI chips will soon exceed the number that their power supply can support.
In a few years, SpaceX will launch solar-powered AI satellites. The tariff barriers for solar energy in the United States are extremely high, artificially driving up the economic cost of deploying solar power. SpaceX and Tesla are increasing solar energy production capacity with a target of reaching 100GW annually.
By the end of this year, robot taxi services within the United States will become very, very widespread. We hope to receive approval for full self-driving in Europe by next month.
This year, we aim to demonstrate the full reusability of Starship.
The location with the lowest deployment cost for artificial intelligence is in space. Space-based solar-powered AI data centers are the obvious choice.
It is predicted that by 2030, artificial intelligence will be smarter than the combined intelligence of all humanity.
Currently, Tesla views humanoid robots as one of the core directions for its future development, alongside artificial intelligence and autonomous driving technologies. Musk previously mentioned that Tesla's future will increasingly rely on these humanoid robots.
By comparison, Tesla’s traditional main business – electric vehicle sales – is under pressure due to a lackluster product lineup update and the rollback of U.S. EV subsidies, with deliveries declining for two consecutive years.
Earlier this week, Elon Musk also warned that the initial mass production process for Optimus and the autonomous taxi Cybercab would be 'excruciatingly slow and agonizing.'
Notably, Elon Musk's appearance in Davos this time was quite unexpected, as he was confirmed to join the Thursday agenda at the last minute.
Previously, the world’s richest man had repeatedly criticized the forum, calling the annual gathering of global elites 'boring' and accusing the World Economic Forum of increasingly resembling 'an unelected global government body that people neither asked for nor want.'
In 2022, he also posted on social media: 'What exactly is WEF / Davos? Do they want to be the boss of the Earth?'
Editor/Stephen