Tesla's Optimus silence is starting to make Wall Street nervous

Barron's reports that investors are growing uneasy about how little they know about Tesla's humanoid robot — as a former Optimus AI lead launches his own startup and rivals keep their machines in the public eye.

A report published Thursday by Barron's says the information void around Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot is beginning to make investors nervous. The company widely seen as America's frontrunner in humanoid robotics keeps its progress largely behind closed doors, while the rest of the industry moves ahead in the open.

Part of the unease is a talent departure. On Wednesday, The Information reported that Ashish Kumar, a former Tesla engineer who led artificial-intelligence work on Optimus, has co-founded a humanoid robotics startup. Kumar did not respond to a request for comment, according to the report. The Robot Daily covered Kumar's new venture here.

Elon Musk has defended the secrecy. In remarks made in April, he said Tesla was reluctant to show off the third version of Optimus because competitors scrutinize every frame of new footage and copy whatever they can — a deliberate strategy, he argued, of keeping new technology under wraps until it is close to production.

The contrast with rivals is the point. Unitree is now publicly traded in China, Figure AI regularly demonstrates its robots in public, and Boston Dynamics installed former Amazon AI executive Rohit Prasad as chief executive earlier this week. Tesla, meanwhile, has converted car production lines at its Fremont, California plant from the Model S and Model X over to robot manufacturing — yet few outside the company have seen what the latest Optimus hardware can actually do.

Investors may get an update when Tesla reports third-quarter earnings on October 21, Barron's notes. The outlet said Tesla shares slipped 1.1% in premarket trading on Thursday to $373.83, with the stock down roughly 16% so far this year.