AUSTIN, Texas — Elon Musk wants the world to see Tesla as an artificial-intelligence and robotics company that happens to build cars, and a new analysis of the company's earnings calls shows just how deliberately he has reframed that story. According to a study by financial-research firm Hudson Labs, first reported by TechCrunch, Musk now devotes close to 50% of his earnings-call remarks to AI, Full Self-Driving and robotaxis — up from roughly 15% to 20% just a few years ago.
Tesla still ships hundreds of thousands of vehicles a quarter and draws about 70% of its revenue from car sales. But Musk has spent years arguing that the real value lies in autonomy and robotics, and the data captures a leader steering investor attention toward the technologies he believes will define the next decade.
The Numbers Behind the Narrative
Hudson Labs sourced transcripts back to 2019 and used an AI tool to classify each sentence by topic. The results trace a clear arc: talk of robotaxis and FSD climbed steadily, while discussion of the Optimus humanoid robot exploded from about 2% of Musk's remarks a few years ago to nearly a third of his focus on one recent call. Musk has been blunt about the framing, telling investors that valuing Tesla "as just an auto company" is "the wrong framework."
That thesis is increasingly backed by concrete targets. Tesla's AI chief has confirmed a long-term goal of building 10 million Optimus robots a year, a scale that would dwarf the auto business if realized. It is the clearest sign yet that the robot Musk unveiled in 2021 has moved from side project to centerpiece.
