Tesla Inc.‘s (NASDAQ:TSLA) Optimus humanoid robot has largely been viewed as an artificial intelligence and robotics play. But according to Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), it could also become a major driver of demand for one of AI’s most overlooked components: memory.
During Micron’s fiscal third-quarter earnings call, CEO Sanjay Mehrotra outlined a long-term vision in which humanoid robots become a significant new market for memory and storage, making a striking comparison with today’s vehicles.
“Humanoid robots carry 10 times the amount of memory as an average L2+ vehicle,” Mehrotra said. “We expect a sustained, substantial multi-decade memory demand cycle to begin in the latter part of this decade.”
While Micron did not mention Tesla specifically, the comments come as Tesla continues to position Optimus as one of its biggest long-term growth opportunities.
Tesla Optimus Could Reshape AI Memory Demand
The comparison underscores how memory-intensive humanoid robots could become as they process real-time vision, perform inference, and plan motion.
According to Mehrotra, continued advances in simulation, foundation models and integrated hardware and software are accelerating the development of physical AI, creating “a growing content-rich opportunity for high-bandwidth, low-power memory and storage that powers real-time perception, inference, and control.”
If Tesla succeeds in deploying Optimus at scale across factories and eventually commercial markets, each robot could require substantially more advanced memory than today’s driver-assistance-equipped vehicles, potentially creating a new source of demand for suppliers like Micron.
AI Infrastructure Extends Beyond GPUs
Micron’s broader message was that the AI infrastructure story is expanding beyond graphics processors.
“AI system performance is architecturally dependent on memory subsystem performance and capacity,” Mehrotra said, adding that memory has become “a strategic asset” in the AI era.
The company believes AI-driven demand is outpacing the industry’s ability to add new supply, with Micron now expecting tight memory market conditions to persist beyond calendar 2027.
“We currently do not have line of sight as to when memory supply will be able to catch up with increasing demand,” Mehrotra said.
That outlook suggests the next wave of AI hardware may not be defined solely by data-center GPUs from Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA), but also by the companies supplying the increasingly critical memory required to power everything from AI servers to autonomous vehicles—and eventually, humanoid robots like Tesla’s Optimus.
Photo: Around the World Photos/Shutterstock
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