Tesla CEO Elon Musk denied on Thursday the authenticity of images shared online that purported to show the company’s Optimus humanoid robots operating inside a pharmaceutical production site.
“Fake,” Musk wrote in response to a post on X that highlighted screenshots from the website of PharmAGRI, a US pharmaceutical and agricultural infrastructure firm.
As reported earlier this Thursday, PharmAGRI said it signed a letter of intent with Tesla to purchase up to 10,000 Optimus robots from the third generation onward.
The company displayed photos on its website of Optimus robots working in lab and factory settings.
The firm said the units would be deployed across farms, pharmaceutical ingredient synthesis, and drug manufacturing facilities. Musk’s comment did not address that agreement but appeared directed at the website images showing the robots inside facilities.
Musk’s denial came after social media users flagged that PharmAGRI had uploaded the images to its homepage, prompting questions over whether Tesla’s robots were already being tested (or even deployed) in real-world operations.
Tesla first introduced a prototype of Optimus in 2022 and has since shown two updated versions.
Musk has described the humanoid project as central to Tesla’s future, but the company is still in early stages of scaling production.
The media outlet The Information reported in early July that production was in the hundreds and far from the 5,000 target for 2025.
Musk did not comment on the press release sent out by PharmAGRI this week, which announced the letter of intent.
Tesla‘s chief has written earlier this month that “~80% of Tesla’s value will be Optimus.”
Tesla generated $97.69 billion in revenue last year, implying that the robotics business would need to grow annual sales to about $390.8 billion to meet that projection.