Elon Musk stated that he wants to give Tesla a strong push into the world of artificial intelligence, when asked on the earnings call if investors were not accepting his stated desire to own 25% of the Tesla company.
The question referred to a recent tweet in which Musk claimed that was the amount of voting control he wanted before turning Tesla into “a leader in artificial intelligence and robots.”
The CEO responded by saying he did not want to be in a position where his nomination was voted on by a random advisory board of shareholders, and mentioned the possibility of creating a dual-class stock structure.
Musk highlighted corporate advisory firms “Institutional Shareholder Services” and “Glass Lewis” as groups that pose challenges along with activists who “infiltrate” into companies and have strange ideas about what should be done.
When asked about the production timeline of the human-like robot Tesla called Optimus, the executive refused to give specific instructions.
Musk believes that Optimus has the ability to surpass the value of all things combined for Tesla, and claims that the technology developed by Tesla in its automotive unit translates well into the humanoid robot, as the car is simply a four-wheeled robot. Musk added that Optimus is the most advanced robot ever created in the world.
Musk sees a good opportunity for Tesla to prepare shipments of several units of Optimus next year, but did not specify its capabilities or costs, and admitted on the call that he tends to be optimistic about timelines.
At the earnings conference, he described the “Cybertruck” as the company’s best product so far and the most attractive. He said, “I see us delivering up to a quarter of a million trucks a year,” but did not set a timeframe.
