Elon Musk Talks More About Artificial Intelligence in Tesla’s Quarterly Reports

Although Tesla delivered nearly half a million vehicles last quarter and generated 70% of its revenue from car sales, its CEO Elon Musk is now trying to portray the business as being more about artificial intelligence and robotics than automobiles. According to a joint analysis by TechCrunch and financial research firm Hudson Labs, the topics emphasized by Tesla executives during quarterly earnings calls have changed dramatically in recent years. Based on data from S&P Market Intelligence, the analysis shows that Elon Musk is devoting most of his time to future technologies. TechCrunch.com reports that.

Using the Co-Analyst artificial intelligence tool designed specifically for financial research, transcripts of all earnings calls held since 2019 were analyzed by topic. The data shows that Elon Musk now spends nearly 50% of his speaking time discussing artificial intelligence, robotaxis, and fully autonomous driving software. By comparison, in 2022 he devoted only 15–20% of his time to such efforts.

Autonomy and market value

During this period, Elon Musk repeatedly stressed that autonomous technologies would justify the company’s high market value. In the first-quarter 2024 earnings report, he said: “If you value Tesla as just an automotive company, that is fundamentally the wrong approach. If someone does not believe Tesla will successfully solve autonomy, they should not invest in the company.” This approach has become the central pillar of the company’s strategy.

At the same time, robotics has become another area that has seen sharp growth over the past three years. Tesla first announced that it was working on its Optimus humanoid robot in 2021. During the following year, Elon Musk devoted just 2% or less of his time to the project. Over the past year, however, he has begun dedicating at least 10% of his speaking time to Optimus.

Traditional business takes a back seat

Interest in the Optimus project increased further during the third-quarter 2025 earnings call, accounting for nearly one-third of Elon Musk’s attention. Interestingly, as Elon Musk has increased the frequency with which he discusses futuristic ideas, Tesla’s core automotive business has stopped growing. As a result, he now spends less than one-third of his time in quarterly meetings discussing cars and manufacturing.

At the same earnings call in the third quarter of last year, Elon Musk was reported to have spent less than 20% of his time on issues related to the automotive business. Although the financial figures still depend on traditional sales, the numbers clearly show that the company leader’s priorities and attention have shifted entirely to another area—artificial intelligence and robotics.