Elon Musk used a post on X on Sunday, October 18, 2026, to restate where he thinks Tesla’s value will come from: “Optimus and Cybercab will be the vast majority of Tesla’s value.”
What Musk said
In the same post, Musk said only a few things can scale to “incredible size” economically: super intelligence, robots, solar power and “mass to space,” adding that if you have the first two, the rest will follow. He said the new Roadster stays in the plan simply because it’s “super cool,” even though it isn’t on that list. (Our earlier posts cover the Roadster unveiling and its reservation terms.)
Q3 results on October 21
The timing isn’t accidental. Tesla reports third-quarter 2026 results after the market close on Wednesday, October 21. Benzinga says analysts expect earnings of $0.43 per share on revenue of $27.90 billion. Tesla already reported Q3 deliveries of 486,532 vehicles, which beat estimates.
Things investors are watching:
- Automotive gross margin, after strong deliveries.
- Energy storage margins, after a steep Q2 drop that followed 13.7 GWh of deployments.
- Cybercab and robotaxi updates. Shareholder questions submitted through the Say platform include when Cybercab will be available for customers to buy, who carries robotaxi insurance, Full Self-Driving on HW3 cars, and whether a Tesla van is coming. Tesla said earlier this month that more than 300 Cybercabs are serving Austin, with Dallas next.
Why it matters
Musk has been arguing for years that Tesla is an AI and robotics company that happens to sell cars. The earnings call is where that pitch meets the numbers, and the robotaxi and Optimus timelines may get as much attention as the quarter itself.
Sources: Benzinga, Benzinga weekly mobility recap