“Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said the carmaker could be ready to start shipping its Optimus humanoid robots to outside companies by the end of next year, and that its fleet of autonomous taxis will soon become a significant driver of revenue.
On Tesla's third-quarter earnings call Wednesday, Musk told investors that the company's Robotaxi fleet would soon prove lucrative as usage of the service surges "exponentially."
Demand for its old-fashioned human-owned cars is growing because Tesla's Full Self-Driving (Supervised) automated driving assistance system is now a key selling point, he said.
One thing Musk said wasn't up for discussion: a potential merger of Tesla and SpaceX.
Talk of the two Musk-run companies combining heated up after Tuesday's SpaceX third-quarter earnings call, where the CEO said special committees have been formed to study the prospect.
On Wednesday, Tesla executives declined to discuss the potential merger and didn't take analyst questions about it. "I think I said everything that should be said yesterday," Musk said. "Tap dancing through a minefield there."
Tesla shares fell 3.5% in after-hours trading.
Tesla reported flat revenue at $28 billion for the third quarter but a surprise positive free cash flow despite its heavy investments in AI and robotics.
Adjusted net income slid 4% to $1.7 billion.
Tesla's "services and other" segment was its growth driver, as its core automotive and energy storage businesses saw top-line declines of 3% and 16%, respectively.
Wall Street expected capital expenditures to accelerate from last quarter's $5.8 billion, but they declined to $4.7 billion -- still more than twice the company's spend a year earlier.
Tesla said it would actually spend only about $20 billion in capital expenditures this year, down from an earlier estimate of $25 billion.
Musk said the company will still need "tens of billions" in annual capital spending by 2028.
Other sources of revenue -- including FSD subscriptions, the Robotaxi business and EV charging -- increased 33%.
Musk said the company is working to get its two-seat, autonomous Cybercab to private and commercial customers by the end of this year. However, "the vast majority of the Cybercab stuff will be essentially Tesla-owned, and transport-as-a-service," he said.
He has said the car will be sold for under $30,000.
Tesla sold 486,532 electric vehicles globally in the third quarter, a 2% drop from the same period last year.
Most of Tesla's revenue comes from selling EVs, although with the discontinuation of the Model S and Model X and slow Cybertruck demand, the Model Y SUV and Model 3 sedan make up the majority of sales.
EV demand in the U.S. cratered following the end of incentive credits last year, leading Tesla to recapture most of the American EV market. The Model Y remains far and away the U.S.'s best-selling EV.
The company reported that a record 75% of its vehicle deliveries included paid subscriptions to FSD. "People are buying FSD with a car attached, not the other way around," Musk said on the social-media platform X.
Tesla reported 1.7 million paid FSD subscriptions as of the third quarter, up from one million a year earlier.
Tesla has largely stopped developing new vehicles for human drivers. Musk nonetheless sees the company's vehicle output more than doubling to five million by 2030, he said Wednesday.
"We're producing and delivering as many cars as we can, and we're pushing very hard for FSD approval in additional markets," such as Europe, he said.
Musk said early production of the Optimus humanoid has begun in the company's Fremont, Calif., facility, though he noted that "we still have a lot to get through" before rolling out the product. Optimus needs to be trained with AI to become useful for general purposes, he said.
"The highest-value use, I think, will be kind of heavy industry, dangerous tasks," Musk said. "Things that may cause repetitive stress injuries and that you want done 24/7."
Last week, executives showed off the redesigned Tesla Roadster, expected to be a higher-end, limited-edition sports car slated for sale in 2028.
Still, a potential merger with SpaceX dominates much of the conversation around Tesla.
Musk said shareholders will ultimately decide upon any merger. But a deal would likely give him increased control over a combined company. Shares of SpaceX were up 8% at the market close Wednesday.
SpaceX and Tesla, while separate, have long had close relations and have frequently done business together. Tesla owns a small share in SpaceX. The rocket company regularly purchases vehicles, battery storage units and solar products from Tesla.
Tesla's charging stations and other products use SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet. And SpaceX and Tesla are jointly developing the Terafab chip plant in Texas to meet their ambitious AI goals.
Musk has previously noted that decisions related to the Terafab project currently need approval by both companies' boards. A merger, Barclays analysts noted, could mean speeding up the facility's development. "A joint chip manufacturing facility could eliminate costly R&D duplication across two of the most compute-intensive companies in the world," RBC analysts wrote.
The biggest upside to merging the two companies is their shared interest in AI, or SI, an acronym for "super intelligence" now preferred by Musk and President Trump.” [1]
1. Tesla Aims to Sell Robots Next Year --- Musk expects autonomous taxis to become significant driver of revenue. Otts, Christopher; Tucker-Smith, Owen. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 22 Oct 2026: B1.
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