Giga Texas is in full build-out mode. Aerial snapshots taken on July 29, 2026 by drone observer Joe Tegtmeyer show active construction running in virtually every direction across the Austin campus — from a dedicated Optimus robot factory taking shape in the North Campus, to Phase II of the Cortex 2 AI infrastructure complex rising in the Central Support Campus.
The two projects represent distinct but complementary bets. The North Campus Optimus Factory is Tesla's dedicated production floor for its humanoid robot program — a facility purpose-built to scale Optimus manufacturing beyond the limited volumes currently coming out of Fremont. Meanwhile, Cortex 2 Phase II expands the AI computing infrastructure that underpins both FSD development and, increasingly, Optimus training. Building both simultaneously signals that Tesla is treating robotics and AI compute as parallel critical paths, not sequential ones.
How fast either facility comes online remains to be seen, but the pace of steel and concrete visible in Tegtmeyer's footage suggests Tesla isn't treating either project as a long-horizon moonshot. For owners and investors watching the Optimus timeline, the ground-level activity at Giga Texas is the most concrete progress indicator available right now.
🤖 Tracking Tesla's humanoid robot? See every Optimus production milestone and appearance in our Tesla Optimus Tracker.
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Sources & reporting notes
The links below identify the material source records used for this report.
- @JoeTegtmeyer on X (2026-07-29T16:09:25.000Z) — Direct source
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