Tesla's $1 Trillion Robot Army Could Make Musk Richest

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Earlier this year, Tesla’s board dropped a bombshell that could reshape the future of work. They proposed a compensation package for Elon Musk that could make him the world’s first trillionaire, but only if he delivers on his most audacious promise yet: unleashing an army of humanoid robots that could outnumber humans on Earth. The package, composed entirely of Tesla shares, must be approved by shareholders in a vote scheduled for November 6.

This is not just about executive pay. It is about redefining what work looks like when robots take on jobs we once thought only humans could do. Terrifying to some, thrilling to others.

Behind the trillion-dollar promise lies a shocking gamble

Here is the twist. Tesla is betting big on robots while its core car business faces real strain. Tesla’s first-ever annual delivery decline occurred in 2024, with deliveries falling 13% year over year in the first quarter, followed by another 13.4% drop in the second quarter.

Competition is no longer a far-off threat. BYD delivered over 416,000 battery electric vehicles in first-quarter 2025, outpacing Tesla’s 336,000. That marks three consecutive quarters of BYD beating Tesla in battery EV sales.

The robotics pivot has brought bruising setbacks. Tesla disbanded its Dojo supercomputer team and shut down the project last month, abandoning a system once considered crucial for AI development. This move leaves Tesla dependent on Nvidia and AMD GPUs, undercutting claims of a unique technological edge.

Production hurdles are piling up. Optimus Gen 3 is undergoing a major redesign due to hardware issues discovered in testing, causing delays. Tesla’s head of the Optimus program left in June, a tough moment for a team trying to scale.

Despite the turbulence, the vision remains gigantic. Musk predicts that the future ratio of humanoid robots to humans will exceed 1:1, with a potential quantity of over 10 billion units. Tesla claims the cost will drop below $20,000 under large-scale production, putting robots within reach for factories and, eventually, front desks and homes. The real question is not whether Tesla can build them. It is whether they can build them fast enough to earn a trillion-dollar valuation before competitors eat their lunch.