Tesla is perhaps an electrical automaker, however CEO Elon Musk has made clear that he thinks of it as way more: an innovator in synthetic intelligence and software program, a builder of world-shaking robots. He’s additionally argued that Tesla needs to be value much more than it’s as we speak: as much as $20 trillion, he posted in July, greater than 5 occasions the present value of Nvidia.
Musk has additionally made it clear that he desires to receives a commission, lots. In November, Tesla shareholders will vote on the board’s proposal to pay the CEO a exceptional $1 trillion over the following decade. The deal would additionally enhance Musk’s stake in Tesla from 13 % to 1 / 4. However Musk would solely get that massive determine—and the additional management—if he hit a collection of formidable metrics, together with 20 million automobiles delivered, a million robotaxis in business operation, and an $8.5 trillion valuation. And likewise, a million Optimus humanoid robots delivered.
On a name with traders Wednesday, Musk locked onto that final level to make his most threatening argument for a big payday but. “My basic concern with regard to how a lot voting management I’ve at Tesla is, if I’m going forward and construct this huge robotic military, can I simply be ousted in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later?” he stated. “If we construct this robotic military, do I’ve at the very least a robust affect over this robotic military? Not management, however a robust affect … I do not really feel snug constructing that robotic military except I’ve a robust affect.”
Typically, Musk talks about Tesla’s Optimus undertaking as extra of a power for peace than struggle. He’s stated that Optimus will upend the job market and free humanity from the drudgery of labor. (“Working shall be elective, like rising your personal greens, as a substitute of shopping for them from the shop,” he posted this week.) Elsewhere on the investor name Wednesday, he stated that Tesla’s robots would “truly create a world the place there is no such thing as a poverty, the place everybody has entry to the best medical care.”
Optimus, he added, “shall be an unbelievable surgeon, and picture if everybody had entry to an unbelievable surgeon.” For Tesla, Optimus shall be “an infinite cash glitch,” Musk stated, arguing that everybody will need a humanoid robotic who can do their work for them.
At Tesla occasions—and on the Tesla Diner in Los Angeles—Optimus robots are normally seen doing service work: serving drinks and popcorn, or entertaining guests by dancing or taking part in rock, paper, scissors. (Optimus members in a 2024 Tesla occasion have been later acknowledged to be not totally autonomous, however remotely operated by people.)
