Tesla's Secrecy Surrounding Optimus Robot is Making Wall Street Nervous

Dow Jones10-08 20:02

The robotics industry is moving ahead, without investors knowing what the perceived U.S. leader, Tesla, is doing. Eventually, the information void at Elon Musk's EV and robotics company will start to make them nervous.

Wednesday, The Information reported that Ashish Kumar, a former Tesla employee who led AI efforts for Tesla's humanoid robot, Optimus, had co-founded a humanoid robot start-up. Kumar didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

AI and modern manufacturing enable robots to do some amazing things. (Just watch Unitree Robotics YouTube feed.) Eventually, robots will do useful things, proliferating in homes and businesses.

Musk believes robots will be one of the largest industries in human history, and Tesla is investing heavily in the technology. Recently, it stopped producing the Model S and X electric vehicles and converted car capacity in Fremont, Calif., to robot manufacturing.

Still, few have seen what updated versions of Optimus are capable of. Musk is careful not to show off too much. "We're also a little hesitant to show [Optimus version three] off because we find our competitors do a frame-by-frame analysis whenever we release something and copy everything they possibly can," said Musk in April. "So I think there's some value to not showing new technology until it's close to production."

Meanwhile, other robot companies are starting up. Unitree is now publicly traded in China, Figure AI shows off its robots regularly, and Boston Dynamics has a new CEO. Earlier this week, the company named former Amazon.com AI executive Rohit Prasad as its new head.

Tesla might be left behind. Or it might be winning. No one knows yet. Investors would like to know. Maybe they will get an update when Tesla reports third-quarter earnings on Oct. 21.

Tesla stock was down 1.1% in premarket trading Thursday at $373.83, while S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were off 0.6% and 1%, respectively. Oil prices and bond yields are rising, spooking investors.

Coming into Thursday's trading, Tesla stock was down 16% this year.

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