Tesla profit drops 43% as Optimus enters production at Fremont

Tesla reported Q3 2026 net income down 43% to $787 million, operating income down 56% to $718 million and capex more than doubling to $4.7 billion. Optimus is now in "early production" on a Fremont line, but the robot has no price, no outside customers and no delivery timeline.

• Revenue was roughly flat at $28.0 billion; free cash flow fell 62% to $1.5 billion
• The Optimus line was rebuilt in 46 days with annual capacity of 1 million units
• JPMorgan estimates a 10,000–20,000 unit pre-sale run, with external deliveries possibly starting by late 2027
• Unsupervised FSD slipped again despite earlier guidance of Q4 2026