Tesla’s Optimus robot has apparently mastered kung fu. Its next trick? Heart surgery.
Elon Musk’s bipedal bot was the hot topic of Tesla’s latest earnings call. Musk said Optimus could become “infinite money glitch” capable of driving Tesla’s profits to new heights — and he suggested the company’s robotic biped will also be “an incredible surgeon.”
“Imagine if everyone had access to an incredible surgeon. Of course, we need to make sure Optimus is safe and everything. But I do think we’re headed for a world of sustainable abundance,” said Musk, adding that Tesla’s goal was to create a world without poverty where everyone had access to “the finest medical care.”
Tesla has not yet shown off Optimus’ surgical skills. Demonstrations of the humanoid robot, which is set to enter production next year, have so far included kung fu, picking up eggs, and serving popcorn very slowly.
Musk said Tesla would unveil Optimus Version 3 in early 2026 and that the company aimed to scale production of the latest version of the bot to a million units per year.
“We’re also on the cusp of something really tremendous with Optimus, which I think is likely to be, or has potential, to be the biggest product of all time,” said Musk, who added that scaling manufacturing of the humanoid robot would be “an incredibly difficult task.”
The world’s richest man also used Tesla’s Optimus plans to encourage shareholders to pass a new CEO pay package that could be worth as much as $1 trillion. Musk said he would not be comfortable building a “robot army” unless he gained more control over Tesla.
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While Optimus and robotaxis dominated the earnings call, updates on Tesla’s future EV plans were more scarce.
Executives skipped over multiple investor questions on potential new products, with Tesla’s head of investor relations saying the analyst call was “not the appropriate venue” to discuss new vehicles.
Musk’s comments came as Tesla reported mixed quarterly earnings, with profits slumping around a third year-over-year despite revenue hitting a record. The automaker’s share price was down as much as 4.5% after hours, and was set to lose around 1% at the open on Thursday.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment, sent outside normal working hours.
