Musk says Tesla will probably rent Optimus rather than sell it
He described a tentative rental approach, with no price or start date.
Sikander Iqbal / Wikimedia Tesla will probably rent its Optimus robots rather than sell them, Elon Musk said at the Baron Investment Conference on 6 November.
Baron asked, on the conference recording: "And we would rent those or we would sell them or what would we do?" Musk's reply was: "I think, I think probably rent them."
Musk said a robot would initially cost about the same to build as a car, then much less. He agreed, "Yeah", to Baron's build cost of 30,000 on the way to 20,000, with no currency named.
That figure was not a price to buy or rent. Tesla started Optimus production in Fremont in October and aims to deliver to other companies around the end of 2027.
Rod Bland is the publisher and editor of Volts & Bots. He lives in Sydney and drives a Model Y L bought in Australia in 2026, with HW4 and FSD (Supervised). More about Rod Bland.