Tesla starts ‘early production’ of Optimus in Fremont and points to outside deliveries at the end of 2027

Tesla has started what Elon Musk called “early production” of its Optimus humanoid on a high-volume line in Fremont, California, the company said on its third-quarter 2026 earnings call on October 21. Tesla’s shareholder deck describes the units as “the first production quality bots that we have manufactured.” Musk said Tesla expects to start delivering Optimus to companies outside Tesla around the end of 2027.

Why it matters: this is Tesla’s first official production statement after months of reported numbers. It confirms that the line is running. It does not say how many robots the line makes.

What did Tesla actually say about Optimus output?

Less than the headline suggests. Musk said most of the equipment for a line designed for about 1 million robots a year is now in Fremont, and described the ramp as an S-curve that “has a shallow slope and is somewhat bumpy because it is such a radically new product.” He added that “there’s like 10,000 things that have to go right for production of the robot.” Tesla did not give a weekly rate or a cumulative total.

That leaves the outside estimate standing. The Information reported in September that Tesla was building “several hundred” Optimus a week in August, a figure we follow in our Optimus production tracker. Tesla neither confirmed nor contradicted it on the call. Humanoids Daily notes that the deck labels California Optimus manufacturing “Early Ramp” and the Texas site “Construction”, with no installed-capacity figure for either.

When will companies outside Tesla get Optimus?

Around the end of 2027, on Musk’s timetable. “I do expect these issues to be solved around the end of next year. So that’s the time to expect when we’re delivering Optimus to companies outside of Tesla,” he said. The issues he named were mainly mechanical: “It’s mostly the hand and just kind of the fine-tuning of the hand design and the fingers.” Industrial customers come first; no consumer date was given.

Capacity beyond Fremont is under way but undated. Chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja said Tesla has “started constructing a factory here in Austin, which would be able to do a lot more robots.” Not a Tesla App reports that the Texas line is planned for 10 million units a year; Tesla did not give a start date for it.

What comes before the first deliveries?

Training and a demonstration. Musk said Tesla is “building up an Optimus Academy where Optimus can practice doing a very wide range of tasks”; Humanoids Daily reports a target training fleet of roughly 10,000 to 20,000 robots. He said a video may be ready “in a month or so”, and that he wants it to show “Optimus doing things that are not preprogrammed.” The AI5 chip is due in Optimus “in approximately April of next year,” if things go to plan.

On cost, Taneja said Optimus is “trending closer to where we would say our Cybercab costs would end up being,” without giving a number. Tesla has still published no price. The only figure remains Musk’s 2024 target of $20,000 to $30,000 at scale; see our humanoid price guide.

The delivery date itself is not new: Musk had already pointed to late 2027 for sales. What changed on October 21 is that Tesla now describes the Fremont units as production quality. What has not changed is that no outside customer has been named.