Analysis shows Elon Musk now devotes nearly half of earnings-call remarks to AI and robotics

An analysis of Tesla's quarterly earnings-call transcripts from 2019 to 2026 shows Elon Musk now devotes roughly half of his speaking time to artificial intelligence, robotaxis, and Full Self-Driving software, according to TechCrunch and financial research firm Hudson Labs. The firms used S&P Market Intelligence transcripts and Hudson Labs' Co-Analyst tool to classify each sentence and compute topic frequencies.

Musk's share of remarks on AI and autonomy rose from about 15–20% in 2022 to nearly 50% in recent calls, the analysis found. During the same period, he publicly tied Tesla's valuation to autonomy, stating in a 2024 Q1 call that investors unconvinced in Tesla's autonomy roadmap should reconsider holding the stock.

Discussion of Tesla's humanoid robot Optimus also increased sharply, from about 2% or less of Musk's remarks in the year after its 2021 unveiling to at least 10% over the past year, peaking at nearly a third during the Q3 2025 call.

As Musk's focus shifted, his time spent on cars and manufacturing fell to less than a third of his remarks on recent calls, with less than 20% dedicated to the automotive business on the Q3 2025 call.

Other Tesla executives, including chief financial officer Vaibhav Taneja and vice president of engineering Lars Moravy, have lagged Musk's pivot. On recent calls, they still spent around 30% of their time on automotive topics, with AI, robotaxis, and Full Self-Driving as their next-most-common subjects.

The executives' slower shift aligns with the fact that Tesla's AI and robotics initiatives have yet to generate material revenue, even as competition in the automotive market intensified in 2024.

Despite the lag, Tesla's leadership has matched Musk's rhetoric on future potential, with Taneja describing the company's path as requiring 'bold bets' and promising 'great' outcomes.