Tesla starts making Optimus robots, aims to deliver them in late 2027
Elon Musk says getting to 20,000 robots a week will take at least a year.
Steve Jurvetson / Wikimedia Tesla has started making its Optimus humanoid robot on its high-volume lines in Fremont, California, it said in its Q3 2026 update and on X on 22 October. Deliveries to other companies should start around the end of 2027.
Elon Musk gave that date on the results call the same day. The update calls these robots "the first production-quality bots that we have manufactured", and says the current way of building them is "suitable for a commercial product".
A year or more to full speed
Most of a line built for a million robots a year is in Fremont, Musk said. Reaching that rate, about 20,000 a week, will take "at least a year, maybe a little longer", as parts of the design are still changing.
The robot's AI, mechanical design and working life all need more work, which he expects to be sorted by about the end of 2027. The first customers would use it in industry, for dangerous or repetitive work around the clock, with home sales later.
A Tesla Optimus engineer on the call named the hand as one of the hardest parts of the hardware, and Musk agreed it was the main problem.
| Plan | Robots | When |
|---|---|---|
| Fremont line capacity | 1 million a year | Mostly installed |
| Full-speed output | 20,000 a week | At least a year away |
| Optimus Academy | 10,000 to 20,000 | Not given |
| Deliveries to other companies | First units | About end of 2027 |
Figures from Elon Musk on Tesla's Q3 2026 results call.
Optimus dates have slipped before. In January 2025 Musk forecast about 10,000 robots that year, with several thousand doing useful work by its end, Electrek wrote. By his own later account, none were.
Robot training and hardware
Unlike Tesla's cars, Optimus has no fleet in customers' hands to learn from. Musk said Tesla needs "on the order of 10 or 20,000" robots practising tasks in what it calls an Optimus Academy.
Tesla also plans to fit its next computer chip, AI5, to Optimus around April 2027. A second Optimus factory is being built in Texas, the update shows, and another executive said on the call the Austin plant would make far more robots than Fremont.
December demo and order plans
A video of Optimus doing tasks that are not pre-programmed could come "in a month or so", or "maybe a month or two", Musk said. It would not be "a canned demo".
That puts the video between late November and late December. Optimus is also due at the Humanoids Summit in San Mateo, California, on 1 and 2 December, US time, and their LinkedIn post says Tesla is bringing it.
The San Francisco Standard wrote that Modar Alaoui, who organises the summit, said Tesla had told him reservations would start with that event or in the days after. That was his account, not an announcement from Tesla.
Musk rejected the suggestion that Optimus orders would open in December, replying "No" to a question on X. He gave no alternative date.
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.