Optimus V3 moves toward mass production as Tesla audits its first robot suppliers

Updated 2026-09-23.

Optimus is getting a supply chain. Tesla's humanoid robot team spent the middle of September auditing parts suppliers in China for the third-generation Optimus, CnEVPost reported on September 21, citing The Paper. According to Teslarati, three of those suppliers have now been certified as mass-production partners.

Supplier audits are not glamorous news. They are, however, what a product looks like right before it goes into volume, and that is the point.

Who is building the parts

The suppliers named are Tuopu Group, Sanhua Intelligent Controls and Joyson Electronics, with visits in Ningbo, Hangzhou and Shanghai. They make the parts that give a humanoid its movement:

• Joint modules, the self-contained motor, gearbox and sensor packages at each joint
• Actuators, the units that turn electrical signals into motion
• Precision structural parts, the frames and housings everything bolts into

All three already supply Tesla's car business. That is a smart choice. These companies have lived through Tesla's automotive quality standards and its production ramps, so they know what a Tesla ramp demands. The report says they had already received Optimus orders before the audits began, and the audits settle the scale.

Why V3 is the one that matters

Optimus V3 is the first version of the robot designed for volume production, with upgraded hands and joint actuators over the earlier prototypes. The hands are the hardest part of any humanoid, and Elon Musk has repeatedly called the hand the most difficult engineering problem on the robot. A design built to be manufactured, with suppliers certified to build it, is a different thing from a demo unit.

Why the supplier choice matters

A humanoid robot has dozens of joints, and every one needs a compact actuator that is strong, precise and cheap enough to build by the tens of thousands. That's a supply problem as much as a design problem. The industry's early humanoids were largely hand-assembled from specialty parts, which is part of why so few exist.

Tesla is approaching it the way it approached cars: design the part to be manufactured, then bring in suppliers that already know how to make precision electromechanical parts at automotive volume and automotive cost. Using partners that have lived through Model 3 and Model Y ramps is a head start no pure robotics company has. It's the same playbook that took the Model Y to the best-selling car in the world, aimed at a new product.

The Fremont line

The robots will come off a line that has a history. Tesla ended Model S and Model X production at Fremont in May, and CNBC reported in January that the space would be converted to build Optimus. Tesla cleared the old line in about 46 days.

The target capacity is enormous: a line designed for 1 million robots a year at Fremont, and a much larger plant at Gigafactory Texas planned for later, with production there expected to begin around summer 2027. Early output will be far below those numbers as the line ramps, the same way every Tesla vehicle line started, but the capacity tells you how seriously Tesla is taking the product.

What comes next

The next milestones to watch are the first V3 units rolling off the Fremont line and the Q3 earnings call in late October, where Tesla usually updates its timelines. Code in the latest Tesla app even includes a dormant Optimus entry under Energy, which we mentioned in our app 4.61 coverage. That points at the robot eventually being something you manage from the same app as your car.

From car company to everything company

Put September together and the scope is remarkable. Cybercabs are carrying paying riders in Austin, the Semi has the largest electric truck order in the US and a new factory, the Roadster reveal is a week away, and the robot program is lining up suppliers. The Model S and Model X gave Fremont fourteen years of great cars. The space now builds whatever comes next.

Your Model S or Model X still gets new tricks, too. Paint Shop reached both in the summer, and the guide to getting a custom Tesla wrap covers every model. The studio has templates for all of them.