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On July 22, one day before Tesla's second-quarter financial report was about to be released, Tesla CEO Musk said on the social media platform X that Tesla will produce humanoid robots in small batches next year for internal use, and hopes to mass-produce these robots for other companies in 2026.

After the U.S. stock market opened that day, Tesla's stock price rose nearly 4%, and its market value exceeded US$790 billion. The company is about to release its financial report on Tuesday local time.

In the financial reports of recent quarters, Musk has rarely talked about the sales of Tesla electric vehicles, but has shifted the focus to artificial intelligence, autonomous driving software (FSD), robot taxis (Robotaxi) and the humanoid robot "Optimus". However, these "future" products still cannot generate revenue for Tesla in the short term. Electric vehicles currently account for more than 80% of Tesla's quarterly revenue.

Earlier this year, Musk said that he expected to launch a Robotaxi on August 8. However, just last week, Musk said that Tesla will spend more time on Robotaxi to make important design changes to the front of the vehicle and show some other things. He did not disclose when the product will be released, and there are reports that the release event may be postponed to October this year.

Humanoid robots are another solution Musk offers to solve the labor shortage at Tesla factories. He said that humanoid robots will become the mainstay of industry and their number will surpass that of humans, with an estimated number of 10 billion to 20 billion units.

Currently, manufacturers including Boston Dynamics are developing humanoid robots, which can be used in logistics, warehousing and manufacturing, and perform repetitive tasks that may be dangerous or tedious. China's leading humanoid robot companies include Dahua Technology and Yushu Technology.

Tesla launched the first generation of Optimus robots, called Bumblebee, in September 2022. This year, Tesla released a video of a second-generation humanoid robot folding T-shirts at a Tesla factory. The humanoid robot also made an appearance at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai this month.

However, Musk's announcement of a humanoid robot just as Tesla was about to report its second-quarter earnings does not necessarily mean that the promise will be fulfilled. In 2019, he told investors that Tesla would be operating a network of "robotaxis" self-driving cars by 2020.

Wall Street expects Tesla's second-quarter profit margin to hit its lowest level in five years. In the first quarter of this year, Tesla's revenue fell 9% year-on-year, the company's biggest year-on-year decline since 2012.

An internal document last month showed that Tesla has about 121,000 employees, which is a 14% reduction from the company's more than 140,000 employees at the end of last year. Musk said that Tesla's labor surplus rate (inefficiency level) may have reached 25% to 30%.