Elon Musk Says Cutting Optimus Memory Was Tesla's 'Only Way' to Scale, As Micron Says Humanoid Robots Need 200GB+ of Memory Each
Elon Musk Says Cutting Optimus Memory Was Tesla's 'Only Way' to Scale, As Micron Says Humanoid Robots Need 200GB+ of Memory Each
Radhika Anilkumar NadigFri, October 2, 2026 at 5:02 AM UTC
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Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk said Thursday that the electric vehicle giant has cut the memory specifications on its next-generation Optimus robot chips to scale production, after Micron Technology Inc.(NASDAQ:MU) said humanoid robots could require hundreds of gigabytes of memory and storage.
Cuts Have a ‘Negligible Effect’ on Performance
In a post on X, Musk said Tesla cut the AI5 chip’s memory in half to 72GB and the AI6 chip’s memory by a third to 144GB, calling it “the only way to get enough volume for Optimus production,” which “greatly” reduces cost.
He added that the cuts should have a “negligible effect on Optimus performance,” as memory bandwidth is a bigger limiting factor than total memory capacity.
Musk was responding to an X user who cited the billionaire’s prediction that AI may eventually exceed the sum of human intelligence to argue that humanoid robots would outnumber people.
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Micron’s Forecast, and a 2 Trillion Gigabyte Problem
On Micron’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said humanoid robots are expected to need more than 200 gigabytes of memory and multiple terabytes of storage per unit, similar to autonomous vehicles.
He said physical AI could become a significant driver of memory and storage demand by the end of the decade, with several customers already sampling Micron’s next-generation products.
At an estimated 200GB of RAM per robot, the X user calculated that 10 billion robots would require 2 trillion gigabytes of RAM, far more than the roughly 45 billion gigabytes of DRAM the world produces annually.
Tesla Is Already Ramping Optimus Production
Tesla has reportedly placed its first large-scale component order for roughly 5,000 Optimus units and is auditing Chinese suppliers ahead of production.
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Tesla aims to eventually build 1 million Optimus units a year.
Price Action: On Thursday, the shares closed 0.2% lower at $354.11 and gained 0.22% to $355.60 in extended trading.
Benzinga Edge rankings indicate Tesla’s stock has a Momentum score in the 13th percentile and a Growth score in the 41st percentile.
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