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Image Credits:CFOTO/Future Publishing via Getty Images / Getty Images1:33 PM PDT · October 21, 2026
Tesla has started accumulation of its Optimus humanoid robot astatine its Fremont, California factory, the manufacturing abstraction erstwhile dedicated to making electrical vehicles, the institution announced Wednesday.
“The bots coming disconnected this enactment are the archetypal production-quality bots that we person manufactured,” Tesla wrote successful its third-quarter letter to shareholders. “While we volition proceed to iterate connected the hardware and manufacturing process, we person proven that the existent manufacturing process for Optimus is suitable for a commercialized product.”
That future-looking improvement wasn’t capable to assistance up company’s different middling third-quarter earnings, results that typify a institution astatine the midpoint of a large bet. Tesla’s gross was level and its expenses skyrocketed arsenic it pressed the accelerator connected its Optimus robots, AI, and autonomous driving. The extremity effect was a 43% driblet successful profits.
The company’s gross was mostly driven by the merchantability of its EVs, which was level year-over-year astatine $20 billion. Tesla delivered 486,532 vehicles successful the 3rd quarter, astir 6,000 much than the erstwhile quarter, but lower than the aforesaid play past year.
Tesla’s full third-quarter gross was $28.04 billion, a skosh beneath the $28.09 cardinal it generated successful the 3rd 4th of 2025. Tesla’s third-quarter gross was besides lower, by astir $200 million, from the erstwhile quarter’s haul of $28.23 billion.
Tesla saw a 16% year-over-year driblet successful its star and vigor retention concern to $2.8 billion, which it blamed connected tariff-related lawsuit refunds. There was immoderate affirmative gross maturation nether services, a class that includes customers subscriptions to its Full Self-Driving precocious driver-assistance software. Tesla’s services concern grew 33% year-over-year, bringing successful $4.6 billion.
None of this was capable to outpace Tesla’s spending connected artificial quality projects, and its Optimus robot, which was a large deed to profits.
The institution reported $787 cardinal successful nett income, a 43% driblet from the aforesaid play successful 2025 erstwhile it earned $1.37 billion. Lower regulatory recognition income besides enactment unit connected its profitability. The institution stayed successful the achromatic successful ample portion due to the fact that of a large boost from its “services and other” segment, which accounted for a grounds $734 cardinal successful gross nett for the quarter.
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Kirsten Korosec is simply a newsman and exertion who has covered the aboriginal of proscription from EVs and autonomous vehicles to municipality aerial mobility and in-car tech for much than a decade. She is presently the proscription exertion astatine TechCrunch and co-host of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast. She is besides co-founder and co-host of the podcast, “The Autonocast.” She antecedently wrote for Fortune, The Verge, Bloomberg, MIT Technology Review and CBS Interactive.
You tin interaction oregon verify outreach from Kirsten by emailing [email protected] oregon via encrypted connection astatine kkorosec.07 connected Signal.
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 [email protected] oregon via encrypted connection astatine okane.01 connected Signal.
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