Elon Musk gives update on Tesla Optimus progress

Max Headroom 2025.09.28 3 min read

Elon Musk says Tesla is working hard to scale what will end up being its biggest product in his eyes: Optimus.

Tesla Optimus is the company’s humanoid robot project, which was first announced several years ago but has gained more relevance and become a larger focus over the past year.

Tesla truly had its big breakout with Optimus last year at its “We, Robot” event in October, where it was used to serve drinks, provide entertainment, and mingle with attendees.

Tesla’s next-gen Optimus prototype with Grok revealed

However, it has been a challenge for Tesla to truly scale Optimus and, although it has huge plans for production numbers, certain parts of the project have proven to be more difficult than others.

One of the most notable things is that of its hands, as Tesla wants them to be nimble enough to thread a needle.

This has proven to be very difficult.

Scaling production and refining manufacturing are also likely challenges. Musk says Tesla is “working hard on scaling Optimus,” something that is a crucial issue to solve as the project is a major contributor to the company’s future.

Musk said:

Tesla has big plans for Optimus production

It has plans for an annual production run-rate of 1 million by 2030

Earlier this year, the plan was to build 5,000 in 2025

Elon Musk has said Optimus should make up roughly 80% of Tesla’s value https://t.co/nAMKGq4yGz pic.twitter.com/NIGUKH248i

— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) September 27, 2025

Musk has made some pretty tremendous predictions for Optimus and how important it could be to Tesla in the future.

Earlier this month, he said Optimus will make up about 80 percent of the company’s value in the future. In January, he also noted during Tesla’s Q4 2024 Earnings Call that Optimus would be “overwhelmingly the value of the company.”

Elon Musk details Tesla’s road to selling Optimus and Robotaxi affordably

He has not only talked about Optimus’s importance in terms of money and revenue. He also said it would be “the biggest product of all-time by far,” because of its ability to revolutionize human life. He said it would be like “having your own personal C-3PO and R2-D2.”

Summary Table of Estimations

Aspect	Musk’s Estimation	Date/Context	Implication for Tesla
Valuation Share	~80% of total company value	Sep 2025 X post; Jan 2025 earnings	Shifts focus from EVs to robotics as primary growth engine
Overall Valuation	Up to $25 trillion (Optimus-driven)	Mid-2024 interview	~34x current cap; exceeds U.S. GDP equivalent in profits
Market Size	>10 billion units globally	Aug 2024 interview	Universal adoption for labor/personal use
Product Ranking	Biggest product ever; > FSD value	Mar 2025 statement; Apr 2022	Transforms Tesla into AI/robotics leader
Unit Price	~$20,000 (high-volume target)	Nov 2024 X post	Enables affordability for billions of users