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Tesla stock is rising Monday as Elon Musk continues to promote the potential value of the company’s humanoid robots.
“Tesla will have genuinely useful humanoid robots in low production for Tesla internal use next year and, hopefully, high production for other companies in 2026,” Musk said on X on Monday.
In April, while addressing shareholders at Tesla’s annual meeting, Musk said Optimus would be moved into limited production in 2025. By the end of the year, he predicted more than 1,000 robots would be working at Tesla. Two robots are already on the factory floor, although Tesla has not said what duties they perform.
Musk in April described a hypothetical that could see the product add $20 trillion to the company’s market capitalization. The robots aren’t expected to go on sale until the end of 2025 and are expected to eventually sell for between $20,000 and $30,000.
It’s unclear what Musk means exactly when he calls the robots “genuinely useful.” Past product demonstrations have been less than impressive — in May, Tesla was even accused of posting a video featuring an Optimus folding a shirt that was actually being controlled by a person off-screen.
It wouldn’t be the first time Tesla toyed around with smoke-and-mirrors to display the robots. Infamously, Tesla debuted its Optimus robot project in 2021 with a person dancing in a costume.
“A sentient humanoid robot by 2025? I mean come on, they tried to launch this product with a dancer inside of a robot suit,” Roth MKM analyst Craig Irwin said on Yahoo Finance Monday. “It’s gonna be hard for them to catch up to Boston Dynamics. What they’ve shown us is really state of the art for 2014.”
Besides Hyundai Motor’s Boston Dynamics, Tesla will have to compete with Japan’s Honda and Apptronik. Chinese automakers Dongfeng Motor and Nio are testing out humanoid robots developed by UBTech Robotics on its factory production lines, while BMW has enlisted Silicon Valley-based Figure’s humanoid robots in its facilities since late January.
Tesla stock rose more than 3% on Monday on Musk’s comments. Shares are about flat year-to-date after making a massive comeback over the past two months.
Tesla reports second-quarter earnings on Tuesday, where Musk is expected to give an update on the company’s delayed robotaxi unveiling.