Tesla investor Ross Gerber: Optimus won't see revenue anytime soon
Longtime Tesla investor and vocal Optimus skeptic Ross Gerber told The Information that humanoid robots are hard to build — "hands are tough, feet are tough, and eyes are tough" — and said there's no revenue coming anytime soon despite the massive spend.
Ross Gerber, head of Gerber Kawasaki and a longtime Tesla investor, laid out his skepticism about Optimus in an interview with The Information. "Hands are tough, feet are tough, and eyes are tough," he said, arguing that building a humanoid robot that walks like a person is far harder than building robots that rely on wheels or tracks.
Gerber specifically questioned the commercial case for a consumer-facing Optimus. "Spending a trillion dollars to build a robot to fold clothes doesn't make any sense to me at all," he said, adding that the scale of investment doesn't match any near-term revenue. He argued that military, space, and industrial applications made far more sense as use cases.
The comments came just after Tesla's Q2 earnings, where Elon Musk said Optimus production should start around late July or August while acknowledging the actual unit count achievable this year remains unclear. Musk also said Robotaxi revenue won't become meaningful until 2027.
Gerber, an early Tesla investor and longtime shareholder, has increasingly criticized the company over delays in Robotaxi and FSD progress. His remarks stand as one of the most pointed pushbacks yet against the market's optimism on Optimus.
Summaries are prepared by the Tesla Briefing editorial team and may not capture every nuance of the original reporting. You are solely responsible for your own investment decisions.