Chapter 156

Musk arrives in Silicon Valley for Tesla's AI Day 2, juggling multiple crises and stresses while preparing for the public unveiling of Optimus, the humanoid robot. Despite last-minute technical failures and past trauma, the robot successfully demonstrates itself on stage without backup systems, delivering a confident wave and dance that impresses the engineers and audience.

Musk flies from Austin to Silicon Valley on September 27, 2022, facing a week of extreme pressure: Delaware court depositions over the Twitter deal, SEC investigations, Tesla compensation lawsuits, Starlink controversies, supply-chain concerns with China, and a Falcon 9 launch of astronauts. He sublimes stress through humor, pitching "burnt hair perfume" to Steve Davis at The Boring Company, which sells thirty thousand units at $100 each within a week. At Tesla, Musk rehearses Optimus repeatedly, watching the robot walk to the stage edge, pause, and wave. Milan Kovac, the engineer whom Musk had harshly criticized a year earlier for boring slides at AI Day 1, attempts to remind Musk of the incident; Musk does not remember it. On Wednesday before the unveiling, Musk visits Neuralink's lab in Fremont to study the mechanics of walking via a pig named Mint on a treadmill, then returns to Tesla where engineers have programmed Optimus with shorter strides for the smooth stage. Musk prefers longer strides, comparing the gait to John Cleese's "Ministry of Silly Walks," and engineers adjust accordingly. That night, he tours his old Zip2 office building in Palo Alto and stops at Jack in the Box, his childhood haunt, ordering a teriyaki bowl despite his Ozempic-assisted fasting diet. On the day of AI Day 2, a chest connection in Optimus comes loose, causing panic among engineers, but they jam it back together and proceed. During the presentation, Optimus emerges untethered, raises its arms, wiggles its hands, rotates its forearms, marches to the front of the stage, executes its wave, pumps its fist, dances, and walks off—all without cables or backup support. Musk tells the audience that millions of such robots will eventually create "a future of abundance" with no poverty and universal basic income.