Tesla CEO Elon Musk kicked off the company’s first-quarter earnings call with a monetary heads-up — or depending on the mindset of the investor, a warning. Tesla’s capital expenditures will skyrocket to $25 billion in 2026, far outpacing its previous annual spend as it races to stay ahead of the competition and transitions to an AI and robotics company, according to its first-quarter earnings report.
That figure, which covers what Tesla plans to spend on physical assets outside of its day-to-day operating expenditures, is three times higher than its annual capex budget in previous years. For comparison, Tesla’s annual capital expenditures were $8.5 billion in 2025, $11.3 billion in 2024, and $8.9 billion in 2023.
Tesla had announced in January that it expected capital expenditures to be in excess of $20 billion in 2026, already a substantial increase meant to cover its AI initiatives, including investments in compute infrastructure and data centers, and the expansion and ramp of its manufacturing and R&D production lines, among other items.
This $5 billion uptick suggests these initiatives will require more money than previously planned. But so far, its quarterly capital expenditure, which was $2.5 billion, was in line with previous quarters, the report shows.
Of course, Musk views this as a positive, a sentiment many other shareholders will likely also share since it positions Tesla as a company investing in its future, namely AI and robotics.
“With 2026 we’re going to be substantially increasing our investments in the future,” Musk said in the earnings call Wednesday. “So you should expect to see significant, a very significant increase in capital expenditures, but I think well justified for a substantially increased future revenue stream.”
Musk was quick to note that Tesla isn’t the only company raising its capital expenditure budget. Amazon, for instance, has projected $200 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, across “AI, chips, robotics, and low earth orbit satellites.” Google is slated to spend between $175 billion and $185 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, up from $91.4 billion the previous year.
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The increase in Tesla’s capital expenditures is linked to Musk’s desire and ambition to evolve the company beyond building and selling EVs, solar, and energy storage.
Some of the capex spend will go towards Tesla’s core technologies such as its battery and AI software, according to Musk. The company plans to invest in AI training, chip design, and “laying the groundwork” for increasing manufacturing production, as well as invest in its robotaxi operations and its new semiconductor research fab in Austin.
The Fremont, California factory will likely suck up some of that capital as the company ends production of the Tesla Model S and Model X and begins building its Optimus humanoid robot at scale. The company said Wednesday it has also cleared ground outside its Austin factory for a dedicated Optimus manufacturing facility.
Tesla plans to increase its internal production of Optimus for testing and then “probably” make Optimus “useful outside of Tesla sometime next year,” he said.
Tesla is also putting money towards strengthening its supply chain “across the board,” Musk said, adding that this covers batteries, energy, and AI silicon.
All of this spending, which CFO Vaibhav Taneja said will last a couple of years, comes with a literal cost. The company, which enjoyed a brief 4% share price bump due, in part, to an unexpected $1.4 billion in free cash flow, will head into negative territory later this year, Taneja said.
Tesla shares erased their gains in after-hours trading as Musk and Taneja laid out these plans to investors. Still, Tesla is still on loads of cash. At the end of the fist quarter, Tesla reported $44.7 billion in cash, cash equivalents, and short-term investments.
“While this may seem like a lot, and we will have the impact of negative free cash flow for the rest of the year, we believe this is the right strategy to position the company for the next era,” Taneja said.
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