Tesla's Optimus Gen 3 humanoid robot enters mass production in 2026

Tesla has begun producing its humanoid robot, Optimus, marking a major step in automation. The company launched mass production of the Gen 3 model in January 2026 at its Fremont, California, factory. By late 2026, the robot's business-to-business price could surpass €100,000 per unit, though Tesla aims to cut production costs to under €20,000 each. The Optimus Gen 3 features advanced hardware, including a V3 hand system with 22 degrees of freedom in its fingers. Its AI operates on end-to-end neural networks, trained using data from human teleoperation. Tesla claims this makes the robot capable of complex navigation and task execution.

Tesla plans to manufacture between 50,000 and 100,000 units in 2026, with ambitions to reach 10 million annually by 2027. To support this, a €25 billion joint venture called Terafab was announced, funding a new chip plant in Austin, Texas. The company has described Optimus as the most significant industrial product ever developed. By the end of 2026, Tesla also aims to achieve Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) within the humanoid form. While production targets are high, there remains no clear data on how many automotive industry jobs could be affected by 2030. CEO Elon Musk has suggested humanoid robot production may eventually outscale car manufacturing by 10 to 100 times, though specific job displacement figures are not available.

Optimus is set to enter the market with a high initial price, though Tesla intends to lower costs significantly. The robot's production scale and AI capabilities could reshape industrial automation. For now, the focus remains on ramping up output and refining its technology.