Tesla released a video on December 2, 2025, showing its Optimus humanoid robot running at speeds up to 13.7 km/h in a Fremont laboratory, fueling investor optimism and a 1.7% stock rise to $454.48 the following Thursday. The clip, republished by Elon Musk, drew millions of views and prompted a response from rival Figure AI with its own robot demonstration. Amid the robotics hype, Tesla launched a budget Model 3 in Europe to counter competition.
On December 2, 2025, Tesla shared a short video of its Optimus humanoid robot running in a controlled laboratory environment in Fremont, California. The demonstration, republished by CEO Elon Musk on the same day, showcased the robot reaching speeds of up to 13.7 km/h with a flight phase in its gait, accumulating over 37 million views. Optimus, measuring 1.73 meters tall and weighing 73 kg, features more than 40 degrees of freedom in its limbs and a 2.3 kWh battery for up to five hours of operation. Engineers highlighted the use of reinforcement learning for dynamic balance, with development accelerating from 1 km/h walking in 2023 to current capabilities. Tesla plans to produce 5,000 units by the end of 2025 and scale to 1 million annually in 2026 at Gigafactory Texas, targeting initial factory tasks like parts assembly.
The video, presented amid the NeurIPS 2025 conference in Vancouver, Canada, sparked debates on X about the robot's autonomy, with users comparing its motion to an athlete's. In response, Figure AI released a video on December 4, 2025, of its Figure 03 model running at an estimated 4.8 km/h (3 mph) with smooth turns in Sunnyvale, California. Figure 03, at 1.68 meters and 70 kg, uses the Helix vision-language-action AI model and has hands with 16 degrees of freedom, emphasizing agility over linear speed. CEO Brett Adcock noted its embedded AI for locomotion control. Side-by-side analyses showed Optimus prioritizing speed while Figure 03 excelled in maneuvers, with both facing challenges in uneven terrains.
Investor enthusiasm around Optimus drove Tesla's stock up 1.7% to $454.48 on Thursday, December 4—the first close above $450 in a month—following a 4.1% gain the prior day. Analysts like Barclays' Dan Levy cited potential U.S. federal support, including a possible 2026 executive order on robotics. Projections vary: Deutsche Bank's Edison Yu estimates $31 billion in revenue by 2035 from 1.25 million units at $25,000 each, adding $111 per share; RBC's Tom Narayan forecasts $400 billion cumulative sales by 2050, valuing the segment at $640 billion present value. Musk's compensation ties to selling 1 million robots by 2035. On December 5, Tesla introduced the Model 3 Standard in Europe at €37,970 in Germany, offering 534 km range to compete with Chinese and European EVs; the U.S. version starts at $36,990. Shares rose 0.22% to $455.32 in Friday premarket trading, blending robotics speculation with EV strategy.
