Tesla ramps Optimus production 10-fold but robot hands are holding Elon back

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) has pushed Optimus production up by about 10 times, but the robot’s hands are now one of the biggest things slowing Elon Musk’s production plan.

Tesla was making only a few dozen humanoid robots each week during the second quarter. That figure has now moved into the hundreds per week, according to The Information.

Getting from there to steady mass production is proving harder. Tesla is dealing with supplier limits, failures in automated factory equipment and a difficult hand assembly process. The company wants to reach 1,000 Optimus units per week by the end of the year, before eventually going after an eye-popping target of 20,000 robots every week.

The version coming out of Fremont right now is Optimus V3. Tesla made the frame lighter, added better camera systems and changed the body so it looks more like a human than older Optimus models.

Underneath that hardware is an AI system trained with more than 500,000 hours of data gathered from real-world activity. That does not mean V3 can simply walk into any building and figure everything out for itself. Its current work is narrow.

Tesla has been running the robots through specific jobs inside supervised areas in Palo Alto and on factory floors. The machines are still following tightly defined tasks instead of working as fully independent, general-purpose humanoids.

Tesla fights hand production problems as it pushes Optimus toward 1,000 units a week

The issue with the hands is that Tesla requires several mechanical elements to interact together to a sufficient degree of precision to allow the robot to grasp, transport and manipulate various items. These elements have to endure many rounds of industrial activity.

Tesla also isn’t expecting the V3 model to become the final commercial robot. Before it gets released on the market in large numbers, the firm will have to improve its durability. It means that its first application is to be tightly controlled.

According to The Information, Tesla intends to lease its commercial Optimus robots rather than selling them. The first companies to deploy the robot will be managing warehouses similar to those owned by Tesla.

It allows Tesla to have an easy solution for any unexpected issues or updates to the design, simply take the robot back.

It will allow Tesla to retrieve these robots, replace the mechanical components and send it back for additional use. Furthermore, it will use information collected in these factories to train the AI.

Global Executive Chairman of Faraday Future Intelligent Electric (NASDAQ: FFAI) Jerry Wang thinks that Tesla could make Optimus available commercially in 2027.

“I think it’s very realistic,” Jerry told reporters when asked about that timeline. Jerry said:

The hardware is not a barrier right now. The barrier is software and training. This will take time, but I think that they will get there.

Faraday Future started as an electric vehicle company but has also moved deeper into robotics. Jerry said the company has delivered more than 500 robots this year across three categories: humanoid machines, four-legged robots and wheeled systems.

Tesla has not started selling Optimus to outside buyers yet.

JPMorgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) said in a note last month that sales of Optimus Gen 3 for commercial use may commence during the second half of 2027.

Polymarket estimates that there is only a 10% probability that Tesla will make Optimus commercially available by the end of 2026.

Washington brings Elon to major AI conference while Tesla continues working on Optimus

It is taking place amidst plans by the Trump administration to host another AI-themed event in Washington.

According to reports in Fox News, US President Donald Trump and US Vice President JD Vance will both participate in a full day-long event scheduled for Tuesday during which a new federal website will be launched with the aim of providing citizens access to information and services provided by the government. The event is scheduled for the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, D.C.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz and Joe Gebbia are also expected to attend. Joe co-founded Airbnb (NASDAQ: ABNB) and now leads the National Design Studio as the first U.S. Chief Design Officer.

Elon Musk is also expected at the event.

He will be joined by Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang, Blue Origin CEO Dave Limp and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. Blue Origin is privately held, so it does not have a public stock ticker.

The program is expected to include separate discussions involving government officials and executives across artificial intelligence, energy, health care, space and agriculture.

For Tesla, the immediate numbers remain much closer to the factory floor. Optimus output has moved from dozens of robots a week to hundreds, while the next manufacturing checkpoint sits at 1,000 per week. The much larger internal target is 20,000 weekly units, but the company first has to get the hands, suppliers, assembly systems and robot training working at the same pace.