April 10, 2025 – During the first – quarter all – hands meeting of 2025, Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, made a significant announcement that the company is set to produce the first batch of Optimus humanoid robots this year. This ambitious plan is further evidenced by Tesla’s aggressive expansion of its humanoid robot team, as reflected in its recruitment page.
As of now, Tesla’s official recruitment page lists around 80 Optimus – related positions. These roles are spread across multiple production bases in the United States, including Palo Alto and Fremont in California, Sparks in Nevada, and Austin in Texas. The job openings cover a wide range of departments, from design and software development to manufacturing. This large – scale recruitment drive clearly indicates that Tesla is making every effort to strengthen and expand its Optimus team.
It’s worth noting that Musk had previously expressed his belief that Optimus could become Tesla’s most globally influential product, potentially reaching a scale ten times larger than the company’s second – largest product. This explains Tesla’s proactive approach to talent acquisition.
The Optimus humanoid robot was first unveiled by Tesla at the 2021 AI Day. At that time, Tesla only showcased a static humanoid robot model. However, since then, Optimus has made remarkable progress. Tesla has introduced a series of key improvements to the robot. For instance, the hand design of Optimus boasts 22 degrees of freedom, enabling it to efficiently perform various tasks in both factory and home environments. Moreover, Optimus’s walking posture is more human – like, as evident in the recently released video on the social media platform X. These enhancements have undoubtedly boosted Optimus’s competitiveness in the humanoid robot market.
During the first – quarter all – hands meeting in 2025, Musk also revealed specific production targets for the first batch of Optimus humanoid robots. Internally, Tesla plans to manufacture enough components to assemble 10,000 to 12,000 Optimus robots this year. However, considering that this is a brand – new product, there are numerous new challenges from component production to final assembly. Musk believes that if they can actually produce 5,000 humanoid robots, it would be a success. Musk referred to this initial batch of 5,000 Optimus robots as a “legion.” He said, “This year, we are likely to produce around 5,000 Optimus robots. Technically, our goal is to have enough components to produce 10,000, or even up to 12,000. But since this is a new product and everything has to start from scratch, if we can reach half of 10,000, it will be a great achievement. Even with just 5,000 robots, that’s equivalent to a Roman legion in scale.”
