Elon Musk’s $1 trillion Tesla payday is tightly bound to the rise of humanoid robots—and China’s role in their production may determine whether his vision succeeds.
Elon Musk’s record-breaking compensation package, worth up to $1 trillion, hinges on Tesla’s transformation from an electric vehicle pioneer into a robotics powerhouse.
At the centre of this ambition is Optimus, Tesla’s humanoid robot, designed to walk, learn, and mimic human actions. Musk envisions deploying one million robots within the next decade, a scale that would redefine both Tesla’s business model and the global labour market.
Yet the road to mass production likely runs directly through China. While Tesla engineers designed prototype Optimus in the United States, China dominates the industrial infrastructure and critical components needed for large-scale deployment.
Robot installations in China
In 2023 alone, China reportedly installed over 290,000 industrial robots, more than the rest of the world combined, and reached a robot density of 470 per 10,000 workers, surpassing Japan and Germany.
This aggressive expansion is reportedly backed by state subsidies, low-cost financing, and mandates requiring provincial governments to integrate automation into their restructuring plans.
For Musk, this creates both opportunity and risk. On one hand, China’s manufacturing ecosystem offers the scale and efficiency necessary to bring Optimus to market at competitive costs.
On the other, Beijing’s strict regulations on humanoid robots introduce uncertainty, with geopolitical permission becoming the most unpredictable factor in Tesla’s robot revolution.
If Musk can navigate these challenges, Optimus could anchor Tesla’s evolution into a robotics giant, securing the milestones required for his trillion-dollar payday, and beyond.
But if Chinese competitors or regulatory hurdles slow progress, Tesla risks losing ground in the very sector Musk believes will make work ‘optional’ and money ‘irrelevant’.
In short, the robots coming from China are not just machines—they are very much the ‘key code’ to Musk’s trillion-dollar future.
Never underestimate Elon Musk.