Tesla’s Optimus robots just started rolling off a production line, the same quarter profit fell 43%
Tesla gave hard numbers for the quarter its Optimus line started up: net income down 43%. For the robot's price, rate and sale date, it gave none.
On October 21, 2026, Tesla told shareholders it had begun building Optimus humanoid robots on a high-volume production line at its Fremont, California factory, in space that once built electric vehicles. “The bots coming off this line are the first production-quality bots that we have manufactured,” the company wrote in its third-quarter shareholder letter.
The same letter reported net income of $787 million for the quarter, down 43% from $1.37 billion a year earlier, even as revenue held almost flat at $28.04 billion. Operating expenses rose 39% to $4.78 billion, a jump the company tied to AI and robotics spending.
Chief executive Elon Musk described the phase as “early production” and said the ramp would be “slow” and “somewhat bumpy.” He said hardware, particularly the hands, still needs design work before the robot is ready to sell. Tesla has said it wants to reach 20,000 Optimus units a week, a target Musk has pushed to the end of 2027.
No outside customer can buy an Optimus yet. Musk has said commercial delivery to buyers beyond Tesla itself could begin around the end of 2027, and only once the hand redesign he described is finished. Tesla builds Optimus for its own factories first; a household version, if it ships on that schedule, is still more than a year out.
The letter gave no production rate, no unit count and no price, and set no firm date for an outside sale.
“Production-quality” describes the line Tesla says can now build a sellable robot, not a finished product that has cleared the safety work Musk says remains.
The 43% profit drop is company-wide. The letter does not separate how much of the quarter’s higher spending went to Optimus rather than Tesla’s AI and self-driving work.
