Tesla's Optimus 2: without China, its materials would cost nearly three times as much, according to Morgan Stanley

According to a Morgan Stanley estimate cited by the newspaper, building Tesla's Optimus 2 humanoid with a non-Chinese supply chain would push the cost of materials to nearly three times the figure obtained with Chinese suppliers. The comparison covers materials only. It says nothing about the robot's sale price or its full production cost.

The investigation takes the Beijing company Tashan Technology (他山科技) as an example. It says it holds 80% of the Chinese market for tactile sensors and has more than 200 customers, and says it works with Nvidia on robot simulation. These figures are the company's own.

Its tactile processing chips are used to gauge a robot's grip force: picking up an egg without crushing it, placing electronic components in a casing, or separating the head from the body of a crayfish.

The company comes from the car industry. When it started in 2017, it designed electronics for carmakers, including BYD. One of its first products was a sensor that opens the boot when the driver makes a foot movement.