Musk shifts Tesla earnings calls toward AI, robotaxis and Optimus
Elon Musk now devotes nearly 50% of his remarks on Tesla earnings calls to artificial intelligence, robotaxis and Full Self-Driving, a sharp increase from the 15%–20% typically recorded in 2022. The change comes even though Tesla shipped nearly half a million vehicles last quarter and still generated 70% of its money from car sales.
TechCrunch and New York financial research firm Hudson Labs mapped seven years of Tesla's quarterly calls. Hudson Labs sourced transcripts dating to 2019 from S&P Market Intelligence, then used Co-Analyst, its AI tool for high-precision financial research, to assign a topic to every sentence and count the frequency.
Autonomy becomes Tesla's central narrative
The findings quantify Musk's long-running argument that Tesla should be viewed as an AI and robotics business rather than merely an automaker. On the first-quarter call in 2024, he said valuing Tesla only as an auto company was “fundamentally” the wrong framework and argued that investors who do not believe it will solve autonomy should not own the company.
That framing also places Tesla robotaxi strategy and related-party deals within a broader strategic push in which autonomy increasingly defines how Musk presents Tesla's future. As his attention moved toward those projects, cars and manufacturing fell to less than one-third of his speaking time.
On the third-quarter call in 2025, Musk spent less than 20% of his remarks on the automotive business. The change coincided with the core vehicle operation ceasing to grow amid stronger competition from established automakers and new Chinese entrants.
Optimus gains a larger share of attention
Tesla disclosed its humanoid robot project, Optimus, in 2021. During the following year, Musk devoted about 2% or less of his call remarks to it. Over the past year, the robot accounted for at least 10% of his comments and nearly one-third of his focus on the third-quarter call in 2025.
The company's other call participants have moved more slowly. Chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja and vice president of engineering Lars Moravy still spent around 30% of some recent calls discussing the automotive operation, followed by AI, robotaxis and Full Self-Driving.
Those executives once devoted nearly half or more of their speaking time to producing and selling cars. Their emphasis changed in 2024 as the vehicle business came under pressure, although their shift remains less pronounced than Musk's. The source analysis notes that the newer initiatives are not yet producing real returns.
What businesses should take from the shift
Earnings-call attention is not the same as revenue composition. Tesla's calls show management directing investors toward autonomy and robotics while vehicle sales remain the financial foundation. For business leaders and investors, the practical implication is to evaluate the strategic narrative alongside segment economics and watch for measurable returns from Optimus, robotaxis and Full Self-Driving before treating the change in executive attention as a change in the business model.