Tesla says it has started building Optimus. In its third-quarter 2026 update, published after the market closed on October 21, 2026, the company wrote that “Optimus production began in Fremont on our high-volume lines” and that the robots coming off that line “are the first production-quality bots that we have manufactured.”
That answers the biggest open question from our pre-earnings Optimus status check. It doesn’t answer the next one. Tesla still hasn’t said how many robots it has built, what they cost or who will get them first. On the earnings call, Elon Musk called this “early production” and spent several minutes lowering expectations.
- Status: Tesla’s Q3 2026 update says Optimus production has begun on Fremont’s high-volume lines. Its capacity table lists Fremont as “Early Ramp” and the Texas Optimus factory as “Construction.”
- Numbers: none. The update and the 10-Q filed October 22 give no unit count, production rate, price or specifications.
- Targets (Musk, on the call): 20,000 robots a week in “at least a year, maybe a little longer,” and deliveries to companies outside Tesla around the end of 2027.
- The catch: Musk said parts of the design, mainly the hand, are still changing, and the AI needs “quite a lot of work” before Optimus is useful for open-ended tasks.
What Tesla put in writing
The Optimus section of the update is three sentences long: “Optimus production began in Fremont on our high-volume lines. The bots coming off this line are the first production-quality bots that we have manufactured. While we will continue to iterate on the hardware and manufacturing process, we have proven that the current manufacturing process for Optimus is suitable for a commercial product.” The outlook page repeats it in one line: “Production has begun for Tesla Semi in Nevada and Optimus in Fremont.”
The installed-capacity table is more telling for what it leaves blank. Every vehicle line gets an annual capacity figure, from more than 950,000 Model 3 and Model Y in Shanghai to 25,000 Semis in Nevada. Optimus gets a dash in both rows: California, “Early Ramp,” and Texas, “Construction.” Tesla doesn’t define “production-quality,” and the update has no photo of the line or the robots coming off it.
Three months ago, the Q2 update said Tesla was “installing the first-generation lines for Optimus, where we expect to start production soon,” in space freed up by ending Model S and Model X production. So the 2026 production start Tesla put in writing has now happened, on paper at least. The 10-Q Tesla filed on October 22 doesn’t add a number either. It says research and development spending rose $1.13 billion, or 69%, from a year earlier to $2.76 billion, driven mainly by “SI and other programs, such as Optimus, silicon development, battery technologies, and new vehicle programs.” Optimus spending isn’t broken out.
Optimus will be the biggest product ever made.
A general-purpose humanoid robot that can do useful work at scale will change the economics of labor & manufacturing.
Goal is to get Optimus to high-volume production as fast as possible.
If you’re great at AI, engineering, or… pic.twitter.com/4s92onmu2A
— Tesla Optimus (@Tesla_Optimus) March 25, 2026
Video: Tesla. A two-minute recruiting video from the official Tesla Optimus account on X, posted March 25, 2026, with the line “Goal is to get Optimus to high-volume production as fast as possible” (watch on X). It predates the Fremont production start and doesn’t show the production line.
What Musk promised on the call
Everything in this section is a plan or a forecast, not a result. Musk said Tesla has started “what I’d call early production” and that the start of the ramp is “somewhat bumpy because it is such a radically new product.” He said “the vast majority” of a production line designed for a million robots a year is already in Fremont, and that reaching that rate, about 20,000 a week, would probably take “at least a year, maybe a little longer.” Part of the reason, he said, is that parts of the design are still changing.
He put the first outside deliveries around the end of 2027, once Tesla has sorted out the AI, the electromechanical design and how long the robot lasts before it wears out. The first buyers, he said, would probably be industrial: dangerous, repetitive work that companies want done around the clock. Home use would come later, as production scales. Chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja said construction has also started on an Optimus factory in Austin that would be able to build far more robots than Fremont, which matches the “Construction” entry in the update.
Two nearer dates came up. Musk said Tesla may release a new Optimus video in “a month or two,” and that he wants it to show the robot “doing things that are not pre-programmed” rather than a “canned demo.” And he said Tesla plans to put its AI5 chip into Optimus in “approximately April of next year,” if things go according to plan, with about ten times the computing power of the current AI4. On cost, Taneja said it was too early to say Tesla had hit its target and gave no figure.
How this stacks up against earlier targets
Tesla’s Optimus dates have a history of moving. In January 2025, Musk said Tesla planned to build about 10,000 Optimus robots that year; Tesla has never reported how many it built. In April 2026, he said Fremont production would start in late July or August, according to Electrek. The Q3 update doesn’t say when in the quarter production began.
The 20,000-a-week figure isn’t new either. In September, Electrek summarized a report from The Information that put Fremont output at several hundred robots a week in August and described a long-term target of about 20,000 a week. Musk has now said the 20,000 figure himself, as a goal at least a year out. Tesla still hasn’t confirmed the reported weekly output, so “several hundred a week” remains an unconfirmed report.
The same report said hands were a bottleneck. On the call, asked where design changes are still happening, Musk and a Tesla engineer pointed to the hand. Most of the rest of the electromechanical system has “converged,” the engineer said, but the hand and some custom gears are still being developed. Musk added that it’s hard to build a hand that survives wear and tear and is still soft and sensitive enough to pick up delicate objects.
What Tesla still hasn’t disclosed
The list is the same as it was before the call. There’s no unit count, no production rate, no price, no specification sheet for the robot being built now and no named customer. Tesla also hasn’t said how much of what Optimus does in its own videos is autonomous and how much is teleoperated, which is why Musk’s promise of a video showing tasks that aren’t pre-programmed is worth watching.
The robots coming off the line aren’t going to customers yet. Musk said Tesla needs to build on the order of 10,000 to 20,000 robots and have them practice a wide range of tasks at an “Optimus Academy” it is building, because unlike its cars, Optimus has no existing fleet to learn from. Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy said that practice will happen both in simulation and in the real world. On our readiness scale, that’s manufacturing for internal use and training. It isn’t a commercial deployment.
What to watch next
The first test is the video Musk promised within a month or two. If it comes, look for whether Tesla says the robot is acting on its own. After that, Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting is on December 3, and its fourth-quarter update in early 2027 is the next place a unit number could appear in writing. The AI5 chip is due around April. Musk’s own deadline for outside customers is the end of 2027.
Frequently asked questions
Has Tesla started producing Optimus?
Yes, according to Tesla. Its Q3 2026 update, published October 21, 2026, says Optimus production began on its high-volume lines in Fremont, California, and calls the robots “the first production-quality bots that we have manufactured.” Musk described it on the earnings call as early production.
How many Optimus robots has Tesla built?
Tesla hasn’t said. The Q3 update, the 10-Q and the earnings call gave no unit count or weekly production rate. A September report from The Information, summarized by Electrek, put output at several hundred a week in August, but Tesla hasn’t confirmed it.
When can companies buy Tesla Optimus?
Musk said on the October 21 call that he expects Tesla to start delivering Optimus to companies outside Tesla around the end of 2027, probably for industrial work first. That is a target, not a confirmed date.
How much will Optimus cost?
Tesla hasn’t published a price. On the call, CFO Vaibhav Taneja said it was too early to say whether Optimus had reached its cost target and gave no figure.
Where will Tesla build Optimus?
In Fremont, California, where production has begun, and in Texas, where Tesla lists an Optimus factory under construction. Musk said the Fremont line is designed for about a million robots a year, roughly 20,000 a week, a rate he expects to take at least a year to reach.
Sources
- Tesla, “Q3 2026 Update,” October 21, 2026 (Optimus production, “production-quality bots,” capacity table, outlook): assets-ir.tesla.com (PDF); also filed as Exhibit 99.1 to Form 8-K, October 21, 2026
- Tesla, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2026, filed October 22, 2026 (R&D spending, Optimus mentions): sec.gov
- Tesla, Q3 2026 earnings Q&A webcast, October 21, 2026 (Musk and Taneja remarks). Quotes checked against two independent transcripts: Stock Analysis (Quartr) and Benzinga
- Tesla, “Q2 2026 Update,” July 22, 2026 (Optimus lines being installed in Fremont): ir.tesla.com (PDF)
- Tesla Optimus on X, recruiting video, March 25, 2026: x.com/Tesla_Optimus
- Tesla on X, annual meeting date (December 3), October 19, 2026: x.com/Tesla
- Electrek, “Tesla ramps Optimus to hundreds a week, but the robots can’t generalize,” September 25, 2026 (citing The Information): electrek.co
- Electrek, “Tesla pushes Optimus V3 reveal later this year – again,” April 22, 2026: electrek.co
All sources accessed October 22, 2026, by about 7:30 AM ET. Call remarks are quoted only where both transcripts match word for word; everything else from the call is paraphrased.
Related: More Robot Companies coverage · Robot companies directory
Last updated: October 22, 2026. This is not investment advice. To report an error, see our corrections page. Articles are drafted with AI assistance and reviewed and edited by an editor; see our editorial policy.
