Tesla Dials Back 2026 Spending to ~$20B as Musk Warns Optimus Scale-Up Takes Time

Tesla has dialed back its full-year spending plans despite Elon Musk’s vision of transforming the electric carmaker with autonomous vehicles, robotics and energy. The company said it now expects capital expenditures of around $20 billion in 2026, a reversal from earlier in the year when it raised its forecast to $25 billion, The Times reported on October 22.

Chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja said the lower forecast was "a result of managing our capital deployment efficiently" and that Tesla plans to fund spending "primarily from our cash flows from operations." Tesla has secured the option to borrow $30 billion to fuel growth but does not plan to draw on those facilities this year. Third-quarter capex came in at $4.73 billion, down from $5.79 billion in the second quarter.

The pullback is notable because it comes as Musk pushes Tesla from a car manufacturer into an AI and robotics company — the same ambition that is driving the potential SpaceX merger. Musk warned investors on the earnings call that scaling Optimus humanoid robot production to 20,000 units a week will take at least a year, requiring a huge new supply chain and factory. Efficient capital deployment or not, the $5 billion spending cut signals how expensive the pivot remains.