Tesla has begun building its Optimus humanoid robot at its Fremont, California, plant, using floor space previously dedicated to Model S and Model X assembly. Elon Musk described the effort as the start of a difficult manufacturing ramp, with Tesla’s 2026 spending plan exceeding $25 billion and expected to rise in 2027 and 2028. Fremont is intended to establish processes that can later be replicated at Giga Texas in Austin, the planned mass-production site. Musk said the initial portion of Optimus’ production S-curve (a period of gradual output before rapid scaling) will be flat and long because every component is new and Tesla must build an entire supply chain or manufacture parts internally. At the same time, Tesla has discontinued its Solar Roof, a glass-tile product unveiled in 2016, removed it from its website and stopped accepting new orders. The company continues selling conventional solar panels, Powerwall batteries and Megapack storage. About 3,000 U.S. homes had Solar Roof installations by 2023, according to Wood Mackenzie data cited by The Verge, well below Musk’s original goal of about 1,000 installations per week. Tesla continues to provide support documentation for existing systems, but its removal and reinstallation service covers conventional panels only. The company introduced a new generation of conventional panels in March, designed in California and built at Gigafactory New York, with 18 power zones intended to improve performance in partial shade. The developments show Tesla shifting resources away from a difficult-to-scale residential product while making a much larger bet on robotics, which Musk has said could eventually represent 80% of Tesla’s value. The key test for investors will be whether Tesla can overcome supply-chain constraints and move Optimus from a constrained start toward faster production over the next several quarters.