Prominent short seller Jim Chanos took aim at Tesla Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk‘s ambitious market cap projections, drawing parallels to previous claims about cost-cutting initiatives.
What Happened: “He also thought DOGE would save $1-2 trillion, too,” Chanos wrote Monday on X, responding to Musk’s repeated forecast that Tesla could reach a $25 trillion market valuation through its humanoid robot program.
During Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting in June, Musk said that the Optimus humanoid robot could eventually become “more valuable than everything else combined” at the company. He projected a future with “at least one humanoid robot for every person,” potentially creating a market of 10 billion robots worldwide.
“While autonomous vehicles are a $5-$7 trillion market cap situation, Optimus is a $25 trillion market cap situation,” said Musk, who admitted to being “pathologically optimistic.”
Why It Matters: Musk’s Optimus claims reappear amid scaled-back projections for his Department of Government Efficiency initiative. Initially pledging $2 trillion in federal budget savings during President Donald Trump‘s campaign, Musk later revised the target to $1 trillion, before announcing just $150 billion in projected savings for fiscal year 2026 at a recent cabinet meeting.
Bank of America Securities recently criticized DOGE’s reported savings as “overstated,” noting misinterpretations of government contract structures.
In June, Musk claimed that the company expects to begin limited production following hardware revisions in late 2024 or early 2025, with potential external sales by late 2025.
Musk projects Optimus humanoid robot’s pricing between $10,000-$20,000 per unit when high-volume production is achieved, significantly below Tesla’s most affordable vehicle, the Model 3 sedan.
Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings shows that although Tesla has a short- to long-term negative price trend, it outperforms Lucid Group Inc. LCID, Rivian Automotive Inc. RIVN, and NIO Inc. NIO in terms of momentum. Sign up for more insights.
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