Tesla’s next-generation humanoid robot Optimus was recently shown on X, and for the first time it worked together with the AI assistant Grok. Just the night before the video was released, Tesla CEO Elon Musk met with Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, and seemed to share some exclusive updates on future tech.
Elon’s Tesla Optimus 🤖🔥 is here! Dawn of the physical Agentforce revolution, tackling human work for $200K–$500K. Productivity game-changer! Congrats @elonmusk, and thank you for always being so kind to me! 🚀 #Tesla #Optimus pic.twitter.com/bA5IYIylE1
— Marc Benioff (@Benioff) September 3, 2025
The short video showed the newest Optimus prototype. It could answer questions, but its movements still looked stiff, showing it’s still in an early stage of development. With Grok, however, it gained extra interaction ability and could respond instantly to Benioff’s questions during the demo.
Compared with earlier versions, the new Optimus brings several big changes, many of which Musk had mentioned before. The most obvious update is its new gold design, which has never been shown before. Another change is in the hands, which now look more detailed than before. But for now, they don’t seem fully functional and look more like mannequin hands.
The hands are one of the most important parts of the Optimus project. If the robot is going to replace humans in complex or delicate tasks, hand ability is key. Tesla’s goal is to make it capable of things like threading a needle or playing the piano. This has always been the biggest focus. Musk said: “Next-generation Optimus hand, which we have in prototype form, has actuators that have moved to the forearm, just like humans, and they operate the fingers through cables, just like human hands.”
In Musk’s view, Optimus is hugely important for Tesla’s strategy. It could drive both market share and company valuation. If Tesla can develop and mass-produce these humanoid robots in the next few years, companies will use them for heavy labor. Musk even said Optimus could become Tesla’s main source of value, possibly contributing about 80% of the company’s future worth.