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Musk plans to create army of Optimus humanoid robots in coming years

The US entrepreneur said that a prototype of Generation 3 Optimus would be ready in the first quarter of 2026

NEW YORK, October 23. /TASS/. Billionaire entrepreneur and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has said that he expects to create an army of Optimus humanoid robots, producing at least one million units annually.

"We're going to be building a million unit Optimus production line, hopefully, with a production start towards the end of next year," he noted at Tesla’s third-quarter conference call broadcast on YouTube.

He said that a prototype of Generation 3 Optimus would be ready in the first quarter of 2026, "probably February or March." However, increasing production to one million units a year will take some time.

According to Musk, the main difficulty is that "with a humanoid robot, there is no supply chain," so the company will have to "manufacture the parts internally." "My fundamental concern with regard to how much voting control I have at Tesla is if I go ahead and build this enormous robot army, can I just be ousted at some point in the future?" he remarked. "If we build this robot army, do I have at least a strong influence over that robot? <...> I don't feel comfortable building that robot on me if I don't have at least a strong influence," Musk observed.

He went on to say that in the future, Optimus 4 will be created: "We'll do Optimus 4; that'll be ten million units. Optimus 5, maybe 50 to 100 million units."

"With Optimus and self-driving, you can actually create a world where there is no poverty, where everyone has access to the finest medical care," Musk emphasized. "Optimus will be an incredible surgeon," he added.

Musk floated the idea of a humanoid robot in August 2021. The Optimus robot was unveiled in October 2024. In May 2025, Optimus made an appearance on the red carpet at a movie premiere in Hollywood, performing kung fu.