Tesla's ambitious Optimus humanoid robot factory at the Giga Texas North Campus has crossed a concrete threshold: the first steel structure is now standing. Drone footage captured by Tesla construction tracker Joe Tegtmeyer on May 27 also shows the second phase of land reclamation underway — work that will allow the facility to eventually stretch to nearly the same length as the main Giga Texas building.
From Dirt to Steel in Months
The pace here is worth putting in context. Ground clearing at the North Campus was only confirmed by drone footage in November 2025. By April 2026, Geopier foundation equipment had moved in — a sign that the site was transitioning from clearing to structural preparation. Now, roughly a month later, the first steel is up. That's a compressed timeline even by Tesla's aggressive construction standards.
According to permit documents, Tesla is planning to add over 5.2 million square feet of new building space to the Giga Texas North Campus, with an estimated investment between $5 billion and $10 billion. Major structural work is anticipated to wrap by late 2026, which aligns with the current pace of activity on site.
Two Factories, One Robot
The Giga Texas facility isn't Tesla's only Optimus construction project. In parallel, the Fremont factory is being converted into the world's first large-scale Optimus production line — targeting first-generation units at up to 1 million per year by end of 2026, with production expected to begin as early as late July or August. Elon Musk has acknowledged that initial output at Fremont will be slow given the complexity of a new line with roughly 10,000 unique parts.
The Giga Texas factory is a different animal entirely. It's designed for Optimus V4 — a higher-volume variant — and carries a long-term production target of 10 million units per year. Low-volume production from this facility is projected to begin as early as Summer 2026, with full ramp targeting 2027, according to previous reporting.
Scale That's Hard to Visualize
Ten million units per year is a number that deserves a moment of pause. For reference, Tesla delivered approximately 1.79 million vehicles globally in 2024 — its entire car business. The Optimus factory's stated capacity would dwarf that by nearly 6x, and the physical footprint is being built to match. The ongoing land reclamation expanding the site to near-Giga-Texas length is the clearest signal yet that Tesla is engineering for that scale from the ground up, not planning to retrofit later.
Whether the production ramp actually hits those numbers on that timeline is a separate question — Tesla's manufacturing ambitions have historically outpaced initial schedules. But the steel going up today means the bet is being placed in concrete and iron, not just on a slide deck.
Sarah focuses on Tesla Energy, SpaceX missions, and the broader Musk AI portfolio. Former data analyst in clean energy. Based in San Francisco.
Sources verified at publish time. Spotted an inaccuracy? Email editorial@basenor.com.
