An expo visitor takes picture of a Tesla humanoid robot on display at the 2nd China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) in Beijing on November 27, 2024. Photo: Chen Tao/GT

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Tuesday that the production of the company's Optimus humanoid robots was impacted by China's export restrictions on rare-earth magnets, saying that Tesla is working with China to get an export license to use rare-earth magnets, Reuters reported on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Musk said during the company's earnings call that "China wants some assurances that these are not used for military purposes, which obviously they're not. They're just going into a humanoid robot," per the Reuters report.

Optimus, developed by the US electric carmaker Tesla, is a humanoid robot designed to perform dangerous, repetitive, or undesirable tasks using AI-powered automation.

The production of Optimus has been reportedly affected by China's curbs on rare earth exports to the US, introduced by China in April in response to the US' imposing steep tariffs on Chinese goods.

Production of Optimus is impacted by the "magnet issue", Musk said during Tuesday's earnings call, the South China Morning Post reported on Wednesday. And, the report said that Tesla is one of the highest-profile buyers so far to flag the direct consequence of the change [tighter permit requirements for the key ingredients].

"We're working through that with China. Hopefully, we'll get a license to use the rare-earth magnets," said Musk.

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) and General Administration of Customs on April 4 announced export control measures on certain items related to seven types of medium and heavy rare earths, including samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium. 

These materials have both military and civil uses, imposing export controls on them is a common international practice, aiming to better safeguard national security and interests and fulfil non-proliferation and other international obligations, the ministry noted.

China is willing to strengthen foreign exchanges and cooperation and promote compliant trade through bilateral export control dialogue and communication mechanisms, a MOFCOM spokesperson said earlier.

High-performance neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) permanent magnets are a core material in robotic servo motors, and public data shows that a single humanoid robot typically requires over 40 servo motors, with each motor needing 50-100 grams of NdFeB magnets, resulting in a total consumption of 2 to 4 kilograms, the Securities Times reported on Wednesday.

Taking Tesla's Optimus robot as an example, each unit requires approximately 3.5 kg of high-performance NdFeB magnets, the newspaper noted.

In a January interview this year, Musk revealed that Tesla plans to produce thousands of Optimus humanoid robots in 2025 for initial factory testing, and the company aims to scale up production tenfold in 2026, targeting an output of 50,000 to 100,000 units.
 
Tesla is long regarded as the flagship US enterprise operating in China. Its Shanghai Gigafactory has already produced over 100 Megapack energy storage systems, and this Shanghai-based factory has been the cornerstone of Tesla's global production expansion strategy, China News Service reported on Wednesday.


Global Times