Tesla Pivots to Robots as Investors Question Sales and Soaring Valuation

Elon Musk may be trying to pivot Tesla Inc. away from electric vehicles and toward humanoid robots, but to skeptical investors there’s no hiding from its stagnating sales and eye-watering stock market valuation that leaves little room for error.

Eager to transform the carmaker into an artificial intelligence powerhouse, Musk earlier this month declared on his social-media platform X that about “80% of Tesla’s value will be Optimus,” referring to the company’s robot initiative. But that’s for the future. In the here and now, Tesla’s 2025 earnings are expected to sink nearly 30%, while its robotaxi business is still years from turning a profit and faces stiff competition from Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo, among others.