{"slug": "tesla-ai-boss-reveals-how-big-optimus-is-going-to-get", "title": "Tesla AI boss reveals how big Optimus is going to get", "summary": "Tesla's Optimus chief Ashok Elluswamy corrected his previous statement on X, confirming a long-term annual production target of 10 million humanoid robots for the planned second Optimus production line at Gigafactory Texas. The facility, which broke ground in May, is expected to reach volume production in 2027, and Elon Musk has previously cited the 10 million figure at Tesla's 2025 shareholder meeting.", "body_md": "[Elon Musk](https://www.teslarati.com/category/elon-musk/)\n\n# Tesla AI boss reveals how big Optimus is going to get\n\nTesla’s Optimus chief corrected himself on X, confirming a staggering 10 million robot production target.\n\nTesla’s Optimus program has a new number attached to it, after Ashok Elluswamy, the executive who has run the humanoid robot program since June 2025, posted a three word correction on X Thursday, “Correction, 10 million robots.”\n\nThe line clarifies the long term annual capacity Tesla is building toward its planned second Optimus production line at Gigafactory Texas, a figure Musk has [cited repeatedly since last year’s shareholder meeting](https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-giga-texas-massive-optimus-v4-production-line/).\n\nThe scale is worth noting, because ten million robots a year would mean Tesla building more units annually than most countries sell in new cars. Tesla has framed this as a second line, not the first. The buildout is happening in two phases: a roughly one million unit per year line inside Tesla’s Fremont factory, installed on the floor space vacated when Model S and Model X production ended earlier this year, and a much larger dedicated facility under construction at Giga Texas that [broke ground on its first steel structure in May](https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-dedicated-optimus-factory-construction-officially-underway-giga-texas/). That Texas facility is the one Elluswamy’s correction refers to, and is expected to reach volume production sometime in 2027.\n\nCorrection, 10 million robots\n\n[https://t.co/0z4nyQNTzp]— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy)\n\n[July 30, 2026]\n\n[Tesla Optimus project fires up as Musk sees production line progress]\n\nElluswamy took over Optimus from Milan Kovac last summer and has spent the months since talking up the program’s trajectory. Elon Musk has also floated the ten million figure at Tesla’s 2025 shareholder meeting.\n\n[Ending Model S and Model X production to make room for the first Optimus line](https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-optimus-factory-site-texas/) was one of the more consequential manufacturing decisions in the company’s recent history, retiring two flagship vehicles in favor of a robot that has yet to enter mass production. Musk has previously estimated per unit production costs at $20,000 to $25,000 once Tesla reaches a million units a year, though he hasn’t said what that cost looks like at ten times the volume.\n\nGene has been obsessed with cars since before he could legally sit in the front seat. Writer, researcher, unofficial CS support, accountant, native suit guy when needed, and overall stick poker. He approaches every story the way he approaches a road trip: with too much enthusiasm, not enough planning, and a surprisingly good outcome. [gene@teslarati.com](mailto:gene@teslarati.com)\n\n[Elon Musk](https://www.teslarati.com/category/elon-musk/)\n\n# Elon Musk has a crazy prediction about AI in two years\n\nElon Musk is, in many respects, one of the biggest and most influential figures in modern-day artificial intelligence.\n\nGiven that [Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI](https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-following-tesla-footsteps-way-nobody-expected/) are all looked at in their respective fields as leaders to an extent, each of them has a heavy influence on the future of AI, even though two of them are not thought of, at face value, as AI companies.\n\nMusk has grand expectations for what is to come with AI, not only as a form of assistance to make human lives easier, but to make humans multiplanetary and solve some of the biggest issues that face us today. But even he is astounded by AI’s pace of progress.\n\nHe believes that in two years, AI will be so mind-blowing it might be unrecognizable.\n\nGiven that AI from 2 years ago feels so old that it should be in a museum, then obviously AI 2 years from now will be mind-blowing\n\n[https://t.co/TcsKZ8o8OE]— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)\n\n[July 30, 2026]\n\nThis progress can be seen in a variety of ways, but perhaps the most popular way people have shown AI’s progress, especially on social media, is through an incredibly arbitrary way of watching Will Smith eat spaghetti:\n\nThe progression in AI of Will Smith eating spaghetti (2023 – 2026)\n\n[pic.twitter.com/VDv82mB5gs]— internet hall of fame (@InternetH0F)\n\n[February 10, 2026]\n\nThis is a great way to show people how AI is improving, especially from a perspective that examines how it can manufacture images and video from prompts. AI is an incredibly complex concept, however, and it goes much deeper than Will Smith eating Italian food.\n\nMusk’s most widely adopted method of AI is [likely Tesla Full Self-Driving, which impacts millions of people](https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-full-self-driving-v14-3-6-review-rare-regression-bright-spots/) as they utilize it to increase safety with their travel. Musk has routinely pushed incredibly aggressive timelines for self-driving, especially unsupervised.\n\nPerhaps this perspective is why he feels that things will be solved in a timeframe that is much more aggressive than most of us would think. Regardless, the progress of AI is moving fast, and it seems that Musk’s expectations for it could be high.\n\nBut if it can actually achieve full-length motion pictures and even more realistic production value, it will be hard to distinguish between reality and AI very soon.\n\n[Elon Musk](https://www.teslarati.com/category/elon-musk/)\n\n# SpaceX scores another massive Pentagon deal to support military satellites\n\nSpaceX just picked up another $1.6 billion from the Pentagon, with the U.S. Space Force awarding [two task orders worth $1.6 billion](https://www.ssc.spaceforce.mil/Newsroom/Article-Display/Article/4559276/space-force-awards-task-orders-to-launch-space-based-sensing-and-targeting-capa) to fly 18 Falcon 9 missions from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California through the end of 2027. The launches will carry satellites for the Space Based Sensing and Targeting portfolio, a set of programs meant to help the military detect and track airborne threats and relay that information across forces in near real time.\n\nThe award falls under National Security Space Launch Phase 3 Lane 1, the Space Force’s faster, commercial style procurement track for missions that do not require the military’s most demanding certification process. It is also the largest single order publicly disclosed under that program so far, and the first task order issued since the Space Force nearly tripled Lane 1’s contract ceiling from $5.6 billion to $17 billion on July 17.\n\n[SpaceX to become America’s Military data backbone for missiles, drones, and warfighters]\n\nEric Zarybnisky, the Space Force’s acting portfolio acquisition executive for space access, said the entire process, from identifying the requirement to signing the contract, took about two months, including a month set aside for companies to prepare proposals.\n\nSpaceX is not just launching these satellites. It already holds the contracts to build two of the programs within the same portfolio, $4.16 billion for the Space Based Airborne Moving Target Indicator system and $2.29 billion for the Space Data Network Backbone, [which Teslarati covered in May](https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-to-become-americas-military-data-backbone-for-missiles-drones-and-warfighters/). That means SpaceX is now responsible for both building key pieces of the military’s next generation sensing network and getting them into orbit.\n\nWith this latest award, SpaceX’s Pentagon contract total for 2026 alone tops $8 billion, adding to a defense portfolio that already includes the [Golden Dome missile defense](https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-golden-dome-missle-defense/) software group SpaceX joined in April and a string of GPS launches it inherited after ULA’s Vulcan rocket ran into a booster anomaly, [which we detailed in March](https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-space-force-contract-awarded-over-ula/).\n\nLane 1’s vendor pool technically includes seven companies: SpaceX, ULA, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, Stoke Space, Impulse Space, and Relativity Space. In practice, SpaceX remains the only provider with the combination of launch cadence, flight proven Falcon 9 hardware, and West Coast infrastructure to support a campaign requiring roughly one Vandenberg launch a month for the next year and a half.\n\nSome lawmakers have flagged the growing concentration of national security launches with one company as a risk worth watching. For now, the Space Force keeps backing SpaceX, with it being the company that shows up ready to launch.\n\n[Elon Musk](https://www.teslarati.com/category/elon-musk/)\n\n# Elon Musk sheds two new bits of detail on Starship after 13th test launch\n\nElon Musk shed two new bits of detail on Starship following its 13th test launch, which was an overwhelming success.\n\nSpaceX launched Starship for the 13th time last Friday after two delays: one on Monday when several Raptor engines did not ignite, and another on Thursday due to unfavorable weather conditions in Starbase, Texas.\n\nThe launch was [overwhelmingly successful](https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-spcx-absolutely-crazy-price-target-rough-ipo/). SpaceX was able to complete a necessary test of the heat shield tiles by increasing the acceleration of Starship from launch throughout the flight; 20 Starlink v3 satellites were released with no issue; the Super Heavy Booster landed safely in the Gulf of America, Ship successfully reignited engines while in space; and it also splashed down without incident in the Indian Ocean.\n\n[SpaceX Starship just nailed something it’s never done before]\n\nNevertheless, more details are coming out about Starship, and Musk is doing the talking.\n\n#### Starship Will Be Retrieved in the Ocean\n\nMusk revealed on Tuesday night that Starship would be recovered by a ship in the Indian Ocean. SpaceX routinely tries to [recover Starship after splashdown](https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-reveals-spacex-performed-secret-starship-test-flight-13/) in an effort to find out more about the flight by examining the spacecraft afterward.\n\nWe’re sending a ship out to recover Starship\n\n[https://t.co/fUqUZTITO9]— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)\n\n[July 28, 2026]\n\nThis helps engineers find out more about why things might have happened, allows them to examine any potential damage or anomalies that might have occurred, and increases the chances of an even more successful flight next time thanks to the additional information recovered.\n\n#### Ship Could Have Been Caught by Tower Arms, Musk claims\n\nMusk has already indicated that [SpaceX will plan to attempt a catch of Starship](https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-catch-starship-launch-14-elon-musk/) with the 14th test flight. While this would be a major accomplishment, it would be an expected next step, considering the fact that the Super Heavy Booster has already been caught by the chopsticks on numerous occasions.\n\nThe ship landing was precise, meaning that it would have been caught by the tower arms\n\n[https://t.co/6nbNrRfX9P]— Elon Musk (@elonmusk)\n\n[July 29, 2026]\n\nA ship catch would be a great indication of where SpaceX stands in terms of reusability and launch cadence. A successful catch with relatively no incidents would be a good sign that SpaceX is nearing a more frequent launch of Starship, but also that the reusability of the massive rocket would be something many would expect in the near future.\n\nIt is a necessity to [make life multiplanetary](https://www.teslarati.com/elon-musk-updates-spacex-timeline-for-mars/).", "url": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tesla-ai-boss-reveals-how-big-optimus-is-going-to-get", "canonical_source": "https://www.teslarati.com/tesla-ai-boss-reveals-how-big-optimus-is-going-to-get/", "published_at": "2026-07-31 07:04:36+00:00", "updated_at": "2026-07-31 07:24:39.054384+00:00", "lang": "en", "topics": ["robotics", "ai-products"], "entities": ["Tesla", "Ashok Elluswamy", "Elon Musk", "Optimus", "Gigafactory Texas", "Fremont factory"], "alternates": {"html": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tesla-ai-boss-reveals-how-big-optimus-is-going-to-get", "markdown": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tesla-ai-boss-reveals-how-big-optimus-is-going-to-get.md", "text": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tesla-ai-boss-reveals-how-big-optimus-is-going-to-get.txt", "jsonld": "https://wpnews.pro/news/tesla-ai-boss-reveals-how-big-optimus-is-going-to-get.jsonld"}}