Musk: 80% of Tesla value will be Optimus robots
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Elon Musk says Tesla will eventually derive 80% of its value from Optimus humanoid robots, another sign that he's moving past the electric car business.
Why it matters: Tesla's vehicle deliveries have been falling worldwide, but Musk has been pointing investors to the company's shift to AI and automation, including humanoids and self-driving taxis.
Driving the news: Musk made the prediction on his social media platform X, shortly after Tesla published its fourth "master plan," a corporate manifesto that laid out a gauzy goal of "sustainable abundance" based on the expansion of AI and robotics.
- The vague corporate update triggered plenty of questions from Musk followers, and Musk acknowledged the lack of specifics, saying more details would follow.
What they're saying: Master Plan Part 4 is "nothing more than a smorgasbord of AI promises about its humanoid robot, which can't even serve popcorn," wrote Fred Lambert, editor-in-chief of Electrek, a popular EV website.
- "Tesla is lost as a company," he wrote. "This is a bunch of utopic nonsense, complete with AI 'abundance' buzzwords that Grok could have easily written," a reference to Musk's AI chatbot.
The intrigue: Not everyone's so negative on Tesla's roadmap. Musk's prediction came a few days after longtime Tesla bulls at Ark Invest said the robotaxi business alone could represent 90% of Tesla's enterprise value by 2029.
- Ark believes Tesla robotaxis — now operating in Austin, Texas, albeit with a human operator on board — will overtake Waymo and capture a significant share of what it projects is a $10 trillion global market.
Where it stands: About three-quarters of Tesla's revenue today comes from automotive sales — essentially just two models, the 3 and Y.
- The remainder comes from energy generation and storage or services.
- Another reliable source of revenue — selling regulatory credits to other carmakers — is drying up under the Trump administration's less strident emissions rules.
The bottom line: Innovation is what built Tesla, and with EV momentum faltering, Musk needs to convince investors he's got more ideas up his sleeve.
