TL;DR: Tesla is throwing serious weight behind Optimus. They just locked down a massive 267,000-square-foot facility in Fremont entirely dedicated to robotics R&D.
Anyone who thought Optimus was just a side project needs to pay attention. Tesla just signed the lease on a 267,000-square-foot building in Fremont. This isn’t for building more cars. It’s an R&D hub specifically for their robotics division.
That kind of square footage means one thing. They are preparing to scale. You don’t lease a space that size unless you’re planning to hire hundreds of engineers and start running serious manufacturing tests. The Business Journals broke the news, and it perfectly aligns with Musk’s recent shift toward AI and physical tech.
Look at the timing. We’re seeing robot prices across the industry crash to around $25,000. Tesla wants to be the one printing these things at scale. Having a dedicated Fremont campus right next to their existing talent pool gives them a massive advantage.