Elon Musk says copycats are why Tesla can't unveil Optimus sooner

• Tesla hopes to unveil the latest version of its Optimus robot around late summer of this year.
• Elon Musk said he wants to push the date closer to the start of production because of competitors.
• Tesla said it's making two factory lines in California and Texas for Optimus production.

Elon Musk wants to show off the goods — but not to nosy rivals.

During Tesla's Q1 earnings call on Wednesday, investors asked when they could expect to see Optimus V3, the company's humanoid robot, which Musk said will be "Tesla's biggest product ever."

The CEO said retooling Tesla's Model S and Model X factory line in Fremont to start production for Optimus is a massive undertaking, and said he also needs to be wary of watchful competitors.

"We're also a little hesitant to show V3 off because we find our competitors do a frame-by-frame analysis whenever we release something and copy everything they possibly can," Musk said. "So I think there's some value to not showing new technology until it's close to production."

Musk said Tesla expects to start Optimus production in Fremont around late July or August. The CEO didn't name the copycat competitors.

Tesla said in a shareholder deck that progress for Optimus production is shaping up as it prepares to build two factory lines — one in Fremont, California, and another at Tesla's Gigafactory in Austin.

The Fremont line is expected to produce one million robots a year, while the Texas line will have a long-term annual production output of 10 million robots, according to the shareholder deck. Musk said the Texas factory will likely begin producing Optimus around the summer of 2027.

Earlier in January, Tesla announced it would discontinue the Model S and Model X to make room for Optimus production at the Fremont factory.

Musk said testing is ramping up and that Optimus could complete tasks outside Tesla's factories "sometime next year." However, the CEO — known for his reach-for-the-sky timelines and projects — wanted to "inject some reality" into some of the questions raised on Wednesday about Optimus.

He said dismantling the production lines for Model S and Model X in Fremont will take "at least a few months," and installing a new line will take an additional "several months."

"Frankly, if we're able to go from stopping production on one line, dismantling that entire line, reinstalling a whole new line, and turning that on in a matter of four months, that is an insanely fast speed," Musk said, adding that he doesn't know what the production rate of Optimus will be for 2026.

Musk also provided a little more color around Optimus' current capabilities.

The CEO said Optimus will start with simple factory tasks and that he believes Tesla will be able to pack "a lot of intelligence" into the robot locally — meaning Optimus should be able to perform some tasks without an internet connection.

Optimus will still need someone to tell it what to do, Musk said, using the analogy of a manager. He said the robot will need an "orchestration AI" that will guide it, which is where Grok, the AI chatbot made by xAI, will come in.

The amount of interaction Grok will have with Optimus could be minimal, Musk said.

"Grok would probably have about as much interaction with Optimus as a manager would have with the people on their team," he said. "Meaning Optimus could probably work for several hours without any management oversight."