RAM prices tripled, so Tesla cut a third of memory from Optimus's brain
aakashgupta · x · 2026-11-02
Memory prices nearly tripled in the past year, and Tesla still couldn't secure enough RAM for Optimus. Musk said the AI5 chip dropped from 144GB to 96GB and AI6 from 216GB to 144GB — the only way to hit volume for a robot targeted at 10 million units a year. Bandwidth stays the same, which he says is what actually limits performance. He also dismissed an analyst forecast of 20x robot memory demand by 2030 as silly, arguing robots will eventually need more RAM than everything else on Earth combined, since a robot's brain lives locally unlike datacenter-hosted models.
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