Angel investor Jason Calacanis shared glowing impressions of Tesla's upcoming Optimus V3 humanoid robot after a private visit to the company's lab with Elon Musk. He predicted the robot would overshadow Tesla's automotive legacy, calling it the most transformative product in history. Musk responded affirmatively to the comments on X.
Angel investor and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis provided one of the first third-party glimpses into Tesla's Optimus V3 during a discussion at CES 2026 in Las Vegas. Speaking on the All-In Podcast and posting on X, Calacanis described his visit to Tesla's Optimus lab two Sundays prior, around January 1, 2026. He noted the facility was bustling with activity, with numerous engineers working at 10 a.m. on a Sunday.
Calacanis recounted: “I don’t want to name drop, but two Sundays ago, I went to Tesla with Elon and I went and visited the Optimus lab. There were a large number of people working on a Sunday at 10 a.m. and I saw Optimus 3. I can tell you now, nobody will remember that Tesla ever made a car.” He emphasized Optimus's potential impact, stating: “They will only remember the Optimus and that he is going to make a billion of those, and it is going to be the most transformative technology product ever made in the history of humanity, because what LLMs are gonna enable those products to do is understand the world and then do things in the world that we don’t want to do. I believe there will be a 1:1 ratio of humans to Optimus, and I think he’s already won.”
Tesla has maintained that Optimus V3 remains unrevealed to the public, with online images and videos depicting earlier versions like V2 and V2.5. Elon Musk has previously described the robot as highly realistic, set for unveiling in February or March 2026. In response to Calacanis's remarks on January 15, 2026, Musk posted on X: “Probably true.”
The feedback highlights growing anticipation for Optimus, with Tesla advancing pilot production at its Fremont Factory toward one million units annually by late 2026 and planning a dedicated facility at Giga Texas for up to 10 million robots per year starting in 2027. Recent demonstrations, including a jogging prototype, underscore progress in mobility and balance.
