Tesla Humanoid Robot Optimus Could Launch in 2025

Tesla’s humanoid robot Optimus could be ready for production by the end of next year.

That’s according to an earnings call this week, where CEO Elon Musk told investors he believes Optimus will be able to perform tasks in a factory by the end of this year, before reaching wider-scale commercialization.

“We are able to do simple factory tasks in the lab,” Musk said. “And we do think Optimus will have limited production in the factory itself doing useful tasks before the end of this year. Then I think we may be able to sell it externally by the end of next year.”

While Musk said these predictions were “just guesses”, he added that he believes that once Optimus reaches commercialization, it will be “more valuable than everything else combined” from the company’s production line.

“If you've got a sentient humanoid robot that is able to navigate reality and do tasks at request,  there is no meaningful limit to the size of the economy,” Musk said. “So that's what's going to happen, and I think Tesla is best positioned of any humanoid robot maker to be able to reach volume production.”

Musk added that Tesla’s humanoid robot differentiates itself from others in its superior AI inference, which is used to help machines rapidly process information and which Tesla initially developed for its self-driving vehicles.

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“Tesla's inference AI is vastly better than any other company,” Musk said. “There's no company even close to the inference efficiency of Tesla.”

Tesla first announced Optimus in 2022 and since then, Musk has been teasing its commercial launch. The company has shared several video updates this year to showcase its improved mobility and navigation capabilities, including a video of Optimus folding laundry, walking and a look at its internal mechanisms. 

Musk told reporters in a January earnings call that there was a “good chance” the first units of Optimus would be shipped to customers this year, though an exact timeline has not been disclosed.