Tesla Profit Falls 43% as Optimus and Cybercab Spending Soars

Tesla's third-quarter net income fell 43% to $787 million, down from $1.37 billion a year earlier, according to its quarterly filing. Revenue was flat at $28.05 billion, while the company delivered about 2% fewer cars.

Operating profit, what remains after the costs of running the business, dropped 56% to $718 million. Research spending rose 69% to $2.76 billion, and capital expenditures, the money spent on factories and equipment, more than doubled to $4.73 billion.

Optimus enters production

The money is going mainly into two products. Tesla said Optimus, its humanoid robot, has entered production at the Fremont, California, factory. "The bots coming off this line are the first production-quality bots that we have manufactured," the company wrote in its shareholder letter.

Elon Musk wants to reach 20,000 units a week but said that will take at least a year because the design is still changing. He expects deliveries to outside customers around the end of 2027 and called the robot's hand the hardest hardware problem, along with durability beyond a month of use. Tesla has missed Optimus targets before, including a goal of about 10,000 robots in 2025, and rivals such as Microsoft-, OpenAI- and Nvidia-backed Figure AI are also competing.

Cybercab timeline

The Cybercab is a two-seat robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals. Lars Moravy, vice president of vehicle engineering, said on the earnings call: "We're trying to get Cybercabs to customers by the end of this year, 2026." A federal safety audit is open, and Tesla's sworn answers to regulators are due October 30.

Every Cybercab built so far is going to Tesla's own robotaxi fleet, and Musk said most will remain Tesla-owned and offered as "transport as a service." Tesla has not announced a price, though it has cited a target under $30,000. Musk said the robotaxi business should become noticeable in financials in the second quarter of 2027 and will "probably" be "a big deal by Q3 or Q4 of next year."

Musk also said the Tesla and SpaceX boards have each formed special committees of independent directors to study a combination, with no terms agreed. A deal would need support from holders of 50% of outstanding Tesla shares, which he called "quite a high hurdle." The annual shareholder meeting is December 3, with no merger vote on the agenda.