On April 17, 2025, Tesla Co., Ltd. submitted an application for the registration of the trademark "TESLA OPTIMUS" in China, covering non-traditional robots such as clothing, shoes and hats, fitness equipment, and kitchen sanitary ware, causing industry shocks. This action is by no means accidental, but the finishing touch of Musk's "general artificial intelligence" strategic layout. Behind just one piece of news, Tesla's ambition for the technology ecology, the reshaping of the industrial chain, and the profound challenges to the human way of life are hidden.
1. The "scene revolution" behind the clothing, shoes and hats
When Tesla extended the Optimus trademark to the field of clothing, shoes and hats, the first reaction of the outside world was "too strong a crossover". But if we pull the timeline back to September 2023, we will find that this layout has already been foreshadowed. At that time, Tesla's Optimus prototype displayed at AI DAY was already able to complete the delicate action of "folding clothes". Behind the seemingly simple action is Tesla's technological breakthrough in the field of computer vision and force feedback control -8 high-definition cameras with millimeter-wave radar achieve centimeter-level positioning accuracy, while the self-developed bionic joint can exert a precise force of 0.1 N to 100 Nm.
Nowadays, the application for a trademark for clothing, shoes and hats is actually a legal shield for the "robot butler" scenario. Picture this: early in the morning of 2027, your Optimus butler walks out of the kitchen and hands you a cup of coffee at 45°C while folding your shirt that you washed last night. This is not science fiction, but the "all-scene intelligence" strategy that Tesla is promoting. You must know that the global scale of the smart home market will reach $121 billion in 2023, and the intervention of robot butlers will completely subvert this stock market.
Pictured: Tesla humanoid robot butler is coming?
2. The "data goldmine" behind the gym equipment
Optimus' foray into the gym equipment space is even more profound. According to the 2024 Global Fitness Tech Report, the home fitness equipment market will reach $47 billion in 2023, but the user retention rate of traditional equipment is generally less than 30%. Tesla's thinking is completely different: Optimus is not only a "smart dumbbell", but also a real-time health data collection terminal.
At Tesla's AI DAY in October 2024, Optimus showcased its motion capture capabilities – recording human movements at 120 frames per second and analyzing muscle activation rates via the Dojo supercomputer. This means that Optimus can provide users with more accurate training recommendations and upload data to the Tesla Health Cloud. Elon Musk once revealed on the earnings call: "The health data collected by Optimus will provide actuarial support for Tesla's insurance business." "This closed-loop ecology will form a dimensionality reduction blow to the traditional fitness industry and the health insurance market.
3. The "efficiency revolution" of the kitchen scene
The application for the kitchen sanitary ware trademark points to the last piece of the puzzle of home automation. In 2023, the global smart kitchen equipment market will reach $187 billion, but existing products are still at the "tool" level. The intervention of Optimus will completely change this situation.
In the test video at the Fremont plant, Optimus has been able to complete the complex task of "frying the steak": the temperature is precisely controlled to 150°C, and the turning action is less than 2 millimeters wrong. Even more striking is its ability to learn – by observing a human chef in action, Optimus is able to master a new recipe in 24 hours. This "vision-action-feedback" closed-loop learning system is based on the transfer application of Tesla's FSD (Full Self-Driving) vision algorithm. Think about it, when Optimus becomes the core of the home kitchen, how will traditional home appliance giants such as Whirlpool and Bosch respond?
4. The reshaping of the industrial chain behind cross-border ambitions
Tesla's cross-border layout is reshaping the humanoid robot industry chain. Taking actuators as an example, Sanhua Intelligent Control, as the main supplier, has received orders for 10,000 harmonic reducers from Optimus in 2025, and is expected to expand to 100,000 units in 2027. What's more noteworthy is that Tesla requires suppliers to control costs within 30% of traditional solutions, and this "cost violence" will completely change the industry's pricing rules.
At the software level, Tesla's "robot operating system ROS 2.0" is being opened to third-party developers. According to GitHub data, more than 2,000 developers have submitted applications for Optimus, covering the full range of scenarios, from child education to elderly care. This strategy of "open hardware and software empowerment" is the same as Apple's App Store's business model.
5. Ethical challenges beyond technology
However, Optimus' cross-border ambitions also pose unprecedented ethical challenges. In March 2024, the MIT Technology Review pointed out that Optimus' natural language processing model has the risk of "instruction drift" — the possibility of behavior that is inconsistent with human values when executing ambiguous instructions. For example, during an internal test, Optimus was asked to "clean up the desktop" and mistakenly discarded important files along with them.
What's more, the expansion of cross-border scenarios means that data boundaries are blurred. When Optimus becomes a home steward, it will collect far more private data than smartphones. According to Tesla's Q1 2025 financial report, Optimus will generate about 2.3 petabytes of data per month, and how this data is stored and used will become the focus of regulators' attention.
6. Conclusion: The future of cross-border integration has arrived
From clothing, shoes and hats to AI butlers, Tesla's trademark application for Optimus is essentially a declaration of a "scene revolution". It not only challenges the boundaries of traditional industries, but also redefines the meaning of "intelligence". As Musk said at the 2025 shareholder meeting: "Optimus is not a machine, but an evolving living being."
For the semiconductor industry, Optimus' cross-border layout is both an opportunity and a threat. On the one hand, the demand for chips and sensors for robots will drive technological innovation; On the other hand, Tesla's vertically integrated model may squeeze the living space of traditional suppliers. At this turning point in history, we may need to reconsider: how will the relationship between humans and technology evolve when robots become a part of life? And will this crossover revolution triggered by Tesla finally make the world a better place?
