Launching Production of Tesla's Optimus Humanoid Robots
Tesla has officially begun manufacturing its Optimus humanoid robots at the Fremont facility in California, a plant previously dedicated to electric vehicle assembly. The company aims to scale up production dramatically, targeting as many as 20,000 robots per week by the end of 2027. This milestone was revealed in Tesla’s shareholder report for the third quarter of 2026.
CEO Elon Musk emphasized that the rollout will be gradual since humanoid robots represent an entirely new product category for Tesla. He acknowledged that significant development remains before Optimus can autonomously perform a wide range of tasks. Musk also warned that expanding production to industrial levels would involve inevitable setbacks as engineers tackle the complex challenges of mass-producing human-like robots.
Expanding Computational Power and New Facilities
In parallel with production goals, Tesla plans to boost its training computational capacity to 400 megawatts by the close of 2026. To support this, a new manufacturing site is under construction in Austin, Texas, slated to open in 2027. Additionally, SpaceX—another venture founded by Musk—is building the Terafab chip fabrication plant in Grimes County, Texas, covering a massive 9.3 million square feet. This facility will produce essential semiconductor chips for Tesla and the Optimus robots. SpaceX has also started work on a research center at the Austin Gigafactory, marking the initial phase toward establishing the Terafab factory.
The introduction of Optimus production marks a pivotal step in Tesla’s technological evolution. The company continues to invest heavily in expanding its computational infrastructure, which is critical to sustaining this new robotics initiative.
This move signals Tesla’s strategic pivot into robotics, with the potential to disrupt not only the technology sector but also numerous other industries. The concurrent investments in chip manufacturing and computational resources highlight the importance of tightly integrating hardware and software to successfully deploy humanoid robots in everyday environments. Given Tesla’s ambitious timeline and scale, this project could profoundly influence the future development of intelligent systems across multiple fields.
As Tesla embarks on this ambitious journey with the Optimus humanoid robots, the company's growth is further supported by significant advancements in its semiconductor production. The recently launched Terafab chip factory by SpaceX in Texas is set to play a crucial role in meeting the high computational demands of this new technology, ensuring Tesla's production goals are within reach.