According to multiple sources, Elon Musk's Tesla's humanoid robot project "Optimus" is accelerating from prototype verification to mass production, and the relevant supply chain layout has been launched simultaneously in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. According to reports, Tesla has begun cooperating with a number of Taiwanese manufacturers to purchase core components such as harmonic reducers and joint modules, and the entire machine manufacturing will be mainly carried out in California and Texas in the United States.
Musk has publicly emphasized many times in 2025 that Tesla is gradually transforming from an electric vehicle company to a "robot company" and has clearly pointed one of its business focuses towards humanoid robots. He said in March of the Optimus 3 model that this version would be "the most advanced humanoid robot in the world yet" and claimed that there are currently no demos on the market that even come close to the overall capabilities of this platform. According to the timetable given by Musk, Optimus will launch small-scale trial production this summer and plans to enter the mass production stage in 2027.
According to Taiwan's "United Daily News" citing supply chain sources, Taiwanese manufacturers play a key role in this round of robot industry chain, among which Mirle Automation and Asia Optical are currently known important partners. The report pointed out that Mengli has begun to supply harmonic reducers and joint modules to Tesla for humanoid robot joints. This type of high-precision transmission components is one of the core mechanical components for realizing flexible movement and precise operation of robots.
In order to meet future large-scale demand, Mengli has also established a joint venture in Thailand with Kodali Industrial from Shenzhen, China. The new factory is located in Rayong Province, which is one of the important local industrial and automation manufacturing centers. This joint venture project will make use of Kodali's existing local factories to reduce the construction cycle of new production lines. It is expected to be put into mass production of harmonic reducers, robot actuators and other precision components soon.
Another Taiwanese company, Asia Optical, will assume the role of "vision system" supplier for Tesla robots. According to reports, Matt will use its technological accumulation in spherical and aspherical lenses to provide Optimus with optical components equivalent to "eyes" to support its environmental perception and visual recognition capabilities. According to current plans, mass production of these new lens components will begin in the second half of this year and will continue until 2027, in line with the overall production rhythm of Tesla robots.
At this year’s Tesla annual shareholder meeting, Musk further released his expectations for the scale of the humanoid robot business. He said that the company is planning an Optimus production line with an annual output of one million units, and on this basis, envisages achieving the long-term goal of "annual production of 10 million units" in Texas and other places. Although this number remains at the vision level in the short term, it also reflects Tesla's extremely high judgment on the potential of the humanoid robot market.
From the perspective of the supply chain structure, Tesla's current humanoid robot production model shows the characteristics of "highly globalized key components and complete machine assembly concentrated in the United States." The production capacity of precision machinery and optical components in Taiwan and Thailand will complement the assembly plants in California and Texas, forming a cross-regional industrial network covering East Asia and North America. Industry analysts believe that as Tesla promotes Optimus from internal trial scenarios to commercialization and consumer markets, there is still room for further expansion in the scale of the above-mentioned supply chain layout and the number of participating manufacturers.
At present, Tesla has not yet given a more detailed official disclosure on the final price, specific application scenarios and large-scale deployment pace of Optimus. However, judging from Musk’s many public statements in the past two years, he regards humanoid robots as one of the important pillars of Tesla’s future revenue and valuation growth. He has even stated many times that the economic value of the robot business may exceed the electric vehicle itself in the long term. As Taiwan's supply chain enters the substantial supply stage, Tesla's humanoid robot's progress from "concept demonstration" to "industrial production" is obviously accelerating.