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Elon Musk wants you to judge Tesla is nary longer a car company, adjacent if it’s inactive shaped similar one. The institution shipped astir fractional a cardinal cars past 4th and made 70% of its wealth from car sales.
Still, Musk has spent the past fewer years making the lawsuit that Tesla is truly an AI and robotics company, adjacent if immoderate of the AI happens to unrecorded successful cars. And immoderate the institution financials suggest, Musk’s attraction has been moving decisively to the AI parts of the institution — projects similar the Optimus robot and afloat autonomous robotaxis— arsenic the mundane concerns of a carmaker get pushed to the side.
To amusement however that displacement happened, TechCrunch teamed up with Hudson Labs, a New York-based fiscal probe firm, to representation what Musk and Tesla’s different executives person spent the past 7 years talking astir connected the company’s quarterly net calls.
The startup sourced transcripts of the calls from S&P Market Intelligence dating backmost to 2019 and utilized its Co-Analyst — an AI instrumentality purpose-built for high-precision fiscal probe — to find a taxable for each sentence, earlier counting their frequency.
The information shows that Musk present speaks astir artificial intelligence, on with robotaxis and Full Self-Driving software, astir 50% of the clip helium opens his mouth. That’s up from anterior years, similar successful 2022, erstwhile helium typically spent 15%-20% of the clip connected those efforts.
Over the aforesaid period, Musk was often making the lawsuit that autonomy justified the company’s soaring value.
“If you worth Tesla arsenic conscionable an car institution – fundamentally, it’s the incorrect framework,” Musk said connected the Q1 telephone successful 2024. “If idiosyncratic doesn’t judge Tesla is going to lick autonomy, I deliberation they should not beryllium an capitalist successful the company.”
Talk of robotics has changeable up sharply successful the past 3 years, too.
Tesla revealed it was moving connected a humanoid robot known arsenic Optimus successful 2021. In the twelvemonth that followed, Musk lone spent astir 2 percent oregon little of his clip talking astir the project. Over the past year, though, he’s spent astatine slightest 10% of his remarks talking up Optimus, with it occupying astir a 3rd of his absorption connected the third-quarter telephone successful 2025.
Musk ramped up however often helium talks astir these futuristic ideas astatine the aforesaid clip that Tesla’s halfway automotive concern stopped growing. As a result, helium present spends little than a 3rd of his clip connected net calls talking astir cars and manufacturing. On that aforesaid third-quarter telephone past year, Musk spent little than 20% of his clip talking astir the automotive business.
The different Tesla executives who look connected the company’s net calls, similar main fiscal serviceman Vaibhav Taneja and vice president of engineering Lars Moravy, person been overmuch slower to displacement their focus. Even connected immoderate of the astir caller calls, they person spent astir 30% of the clip focusing connected the automotive business, with their next-most communal topics being AI, robotaxi, and Full Self-Driving.
Their attraction has shifted, but they are lagging down Musk’s enthusiasm for AI and robotics, astir apt due to the fact that those efforts aren’t yet generating immoderate existent returns.
These different Tesla executives utilized to walk astir 50% of their clip connected these calls (or more) talking astir making and selling cars. That each changed successful 2024 arsenic the car concern started to endure acknowledgment to accrued contention from bequest automakers and caller Chinese entrants.
But erstwhile they bash articulation Musk successful talking up the future, they lucifer the lofty rhetoric of their boss, the world’s richest man.
“The way to astonishing abundance is ever challenging and requires making bold bets,” Taneja said connected the Q2 telephone this year. “Our advancement volition beryllium non-linear. The aboriginal is going to beryllium great.”
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Sean O’Kane is simply a newsman who has spent a decennary covering the rapidly-evolving concern and exertion of the proscription industry, including Tesla and the galore startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, helium was a newsman astatine Bloomberg News wherever helium helped interruption stories astir immoderate of the astir notorious EV SPAC flops. He antecedently worked astatine The Verge, wherever helium besides covered user technology, hosted galore short- and long-form videos, performed merchandise and editorial photography, and erstwhile astir passed retired successful a Red Bull Air Race plane.
You tin interaction oregon verify outreach from Sean by emailing sean.okane@techcrunch.com oregon via encrypted connection astatine okane.01 connected Signal.
Russell Brandom has been covering the tech manufacture since 2012, with a absorption connected level argumentation and emerging technologies. He antecedently worked astatine The Verge and Rest of World, and has written for Wired, The Awl and MIT’s Technology Review. He tin beryllium reached astatine russell.brandom@techcrunch.com oregon connected Signal astatine 412-401-5489.
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