Tesla has begun producing its Optimus humanoid robot at its factory in Fremont, California. The announcement came on October 21, in the company's third-quarter 2026 shareholder letter, and it is the first concrete step toward turning a project so far seen mainly in demonstrations into a line-manufactured product.
According to Tesla itself, the robots coming off that line are the first production-quality units the company has ever made. The company also says its current manufacturing process is suitable for a commercial product — an important claim, but one that comes with Tesla's own caveat: the hardware and the process will keep being adjusted.
In the document's capacity table, Optimus production in California is listed as “Early Ramp”, while the Texas plant is listed as under construction. Tesla disclosed no production rate, unit count, price or date for selling Optimus to outside customers, and it did not say which version of the robot is being built in Fremont.
On the earnings call, CEO Elon Musk described the moment as early production and said the ramp will be slow and somewhat bumpy, because it is such a radically new product. The goal of making 20,000 units per week by the end of 2027, cited by Musk on the same call, is a statement about future plans, not a result already achieved. Musk also said design tweaks are still needed so the robot is safe, reliable and durable, plus pending work on artificial intelligence for open-ended tasks.
The milestone arrives in a difficult quarter: Tesla reported third-quarter net income of US$ 787 million, down 43% from the same period in 2025, on nearly flat revenue of US$ 28.04 billion. That figure puts a scale on the cost of the robotics and AI bet, but it does not change the central fact — Optimus has moved beyond the demonstration-prototype stage and into production, even if only early production.
Image credit: Optimus robot (Gen 2) in promotional imagery reproduced by TeslaNorth. The image shows the robot, not the Fremont production unit, whose photo was not published in the sources consulted.
Sources: TechCrunch and TeslaNorth, based on Tesla's third-quarter 2026 shareholder letter
Transparency: this article was produced with the help of artificial intelligence, based on cross-checking public posts on X and internet sources. Check the original sources to confirm the details before sharing.
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