Elon Musk: Tesla will unleash 5,000 Optimus robots in 2025

Tesla is an organization of many parts, one of which is making robots. According to CEO Elon Musk, the company will surprise humanity with a “legion” of Optimus humanoids before 2025 runs out.

The billionaire industrialist made the proclamation at a hands-on meeting with employees earlier today (March 21, 2025) that was live-streamed, giving the world some time to brace up for the first production run of the two-legged robot. He said Tesla is aiming to stockpile enough parts to make up to 12,000 units this year but would be glad to end up with 5,000 Optimuses, or a legion.

So this year, we hopefully will be able to make about 5,000 Optimus robots.  We’re technically aiming for enough parts to make 10,000, maybe 12,000, but since it’s a totally new product with a totally new, like everything is totally new, I’ll say we’re succeeding if we get to half go the 10,000.

But even 5,000 robots, that’s the size of a Roman legion, FYI, which is like a little scary thought. Like a whole legion of robots, I’ll be like ‘whoa.’ But I think we will literally build a legion, at least one legion of robots this year, and then probably 10 legions next year. I think it’s kind of a cool unit, you know? Units of legion. So probably 50,000-ish next year.

Musk is ever the optimist about his companies’ products. He has referred to the bipedal robot as probably the biggest product of all time.

The Optimus has been in development since it was revealed in 2021, using an actor dressed to look the part. Tesla showcased a prototype the following year but featured it heavily during the Cybercab reveal in October 2024, giving a glimpse of interactions with life-sized robots.