Construction of Tesla's dedicated Optimus humanoid robot factory at Giga Texas is picking up speed. The latest weekly drone flight by Joe Tegtmeyer, captured September 9, 2026, shows a clear acceleration in steel assembly — with mid and south bays filling in over the footing field and the structure pushing toward the north grade beam. For a project that broke ground just six months ago, the pace is striking.
How We Got Here
Ground broke on the Optimus factory site at Giga Texas's North Campus on March 23, 2026. The first steel beams weren't visible until late May — roughly two months after breaking ground. By mid-August, the superstructure was estimated to be around 25% complete, with concrete floors already under construction in sections and steel assembly advancing on the south end of the foundation. The jump visible in this week's footage suggests the pace of erection has meaningfully accelerated heading into fall.
The scale of what's being built here is worth pausing on. The planned footprint is 5.2 million square feet of new construction — a building designed to run nearly the full length of the existing main Giga Texas factory, exceeding 4,000 feet. It's also co-located with the planned Terafab AI chip factory, creating an integrated campus where the robot's processing hardware and physical body are produced in the same complex.
The Numbers Behind the Build
| Milestone | Date / Figure |
|---|---|
| Ground break (North Campus) | March 23, 2026 |
| First steel beams confirmed rising | May 27, 2026 |
| Superstructure completion estimate (mid-Aug) | ~25% |
| Planned footprint | 5.2 million sq ft |
| Building length | >4,000 feet |
| Target shell completion | End of 2026 |
| High-volume production target (Giga Texas) | Summer 2027 |
| Long-term annual capacity target | 10 million robots/year |
What Comes Next
The end-of-2026 target for shell completion is ambitious but not implausible given the current trajectory. Completing the steel superstructure is only one phase — roofing, exterior cladding, interior fit-out, and equipment installation follow before any production line can be commissioned. High-volume Optimus production at Giga Texas is targeting Summer 2027, with that second-generation line expected to incorporate lessons from the earlier Fremont production ramp, which began in mid-2026 primarily for internal Tesla deployment.
Whether the steel work visible this week translates into an on-schedule shell completion will be the key question to watch in monthly drone updates through Q4. The north grade beam push that Tegtmeyer flagged this week is a meaningful indicator — once steel reaches the full northern extent of the foundation, the structural frame will be largely in place and interior work can begin in earnest on the southern sections simultaneously.
🤖 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 (2026-09-09T11:28:28.000Z) — Direct source
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