TMTPOST -- Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk presented at the CES 2025 an ambitious vision for Optimus, or Tesla Bot, the humanoid robot that Musk boasted can bring a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity for his company.

Credit：Tesla

Tesla is aiming to initially produce “several thousand of” Optimus robots this year, and then ramp up significantly,  Musk told Stagwell CEO Mark Penn during a video interview at the CES show in Las Vegas. “Assuming things go well, we’ll 10x that output next year (2026), so we’ll aim to do maybe 50,000-100,000 humanoid robots next year, and then 10x it again the following year,” Musk said in the interview.

Musk was so optimistic that even envisioned a world where the ratio of robots to humans could reach three to five robots per person, culminating in a global presence of 20 to 30 billion robots.

Tesla first unveiled second generation Optimus in December 2023, showing its prototype through a demo video. Optimus Gen 2 is equipped with in-house designed actuators and sensors, with ability to walk 30% faster than its predecessor.  Optimus, which powered by the company’s artficial intelligence (AI) technology,  is currently being used in a limited capacity in Tesla's energy-storage division.

Musk said in May 2024 that Optimus’ hands will be upgraded to have 22 degrees of freedom (DoF), in comparison with the previous version of just 11 DoF. That’s already very close to a human’s hands, which have 27 degrees of freedom. Optimus coud be ready for sale as soon as the end of 2025, Musk said at a conference call with investors the same month.  

Tesla said in June it has two Optimus robots that autonomously move around the company's office and laboratories every day. It also said it had started deploying two Optimus bots in its Gigafactory Texas, performing tasks autonomously.The tasks it was responsible for included sorting battery cells and other simple things. Tesla said it would be able to eliminate monotonous work that is boring to humans when its first-generation robot was unveiled.

At the company’s annual stockholder meeting in June, Musk revealed Optimus Gen 2 is being produced for $10,000 and there will be over 1,000, or a few thousand Optimus robots working at Tesla in 2025. Musk expected Optimus robots some day will perform like R2-D2 and C-3PO in “Star Wars.” They could cook or clean for you, do factory work, or even teach your children, the chief executive suggested. As for shareholder value, Musk believes Optimus could be the catalyst for lifting Tesla’s market cap to $25 trillion someday.

Musk called Optimus "the most advanced humanoid robot by a long shot" during Tesla's earnings call in late October. He said Tesla was the "only company that really has all of the ingredients necessary to scale humanoid robots." "What other companies are missing is that they're missing the AI brain, that they're missing people to really scale to very high-volume production," Musk said. "I think Optimus will ultimately be the most valuable part, so I think [it] has a good chance of being the most viable product that we made."

Commenting on a video showcasing Optimus’ flexible movement of hand with 22 DoF in October, Musk said the robot will “be able to play the piano, maybe even some guitar.” Tesla last month released a video of its Optimus achieving a new milestone: walking autonomously outside.

Bank of America analyst John Murphy last month raised his price target on Tesla by $50 to $400 per share, citing the impact robotics technology will have on the group's upcoming fleet of Cybercabs, which are expected to launch next year. Murphy said Tesla was testing Optimus in a host of use cases, as it looked to both refine the current version and determine its final design.