Speaking at a panel at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Thursday, Tesla‘s CEO Elon Musk said that the Optimus humanoid will be available for public purchase “by the end of next year.”
Musk reaffirmed that “humanoid robotics will advance very quickly,” predicting that there will be “billions of humanoid robots in the future” and that “everyone on earth is going to have one and going to want one.”
Regarding Tesla itself, and the Optimus humanoid robot it is currently working on, the timeline is becoming clearer.
“We do have some Optimus doing simple tasks in the factory,” he said, adding that “probably late this year they’ll be doing more complex tasks.”
Additionally, Musk expects that “by the end of next year I think we’ll be selling humanoid robots to the public.”
Latest Updates on Humanoids
Earlier this month, Musk said in the Moonshots podcast that it was still unclear whether the company would offer or lease the upcoming Optimus humanoid, for which mass production is scheduled for 2027.
“There will be initially a scarcity of robots and then there will be —robots will be plentiful,” he added, “but the difference, the time gap between scarce and plentiful will be only a matter of five years.”
According to Musk, it’s “probably true” that people will forget Tesla ever built cars after the company launches its Optimus V3.
For Musk to earn his most recently approved pay package — which could be worth up to $1 trillion and is tied to ambitious goals regarding valuation and product rollout — Tesla must deliver 1 million Humanoid robots by 2035.
Self-Driving
Other goals include the successful deployment of 1 million Robotaxis — which is expected to scale once the company starts production of the Cybercab model in April — and 10 million active Full-Self Driving (FSD) subscriptions.
On February 14, Tesla will stop offering the option to purchase the software (for $8,000), with only the subscription option remaining available from then on.
The company is now approaching FSD approval in Europe and China. Musk first mentioned this in November, targeting the first quarter.
Speaking in Davos on Thursday, he said Tesla now expects approval in both regions “next month.”
The company’s ride-hailing service, powered by the FSD, is expanding further in the US, with the CEO saying that the “Robotaxi service will be very, very widespread by the end of this year within the US.”
On Wednesday, Musk said on X that it is “probably true” that Tesla’s Robotaxi will cost less than $0.20 per mile — a price estimate based on a research report by ARK Invest.
BlackRock x Tesla
Musk was interviewed by Larry Fink, one of WEF’s co-chairs and CEO of BlackRock — the world’s largest asset manager — with over $14 trillion in assets as of its latest report.
As of last September, the firm was the second largest institutional shareholder in Tesla, holding over 206 million shares — which were worth nearly $92 billion then.
Fink’s opening remarks at this year’s WEF were marked by a stark warning about the risks of uncontrolled AI growth, which will impact the working and professional classes.
“Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, more wealth has been created than in all prior human history combined. But in advanced economies, that wealth accrued to a far narrower share of people than any healthy society can sustain,” the billionaire said.
“Now AI threatens to replay the same pattern,” Fink warned, saying that “this is the test: whether capitalism can evolve to turn more people into owners of growth—instead of spectators watching it happen.”
As os press time, Tesla shares were trading 1.4% higher at $437.80 on Thursday’s market session.
