Elon Musk (@elonmusk) said Tesla ($TSLA) reduced the memory capacity planned for its next-generation AI chips to make large-scale Optimus production more practical and significantly cheaper. Musk said Tesla cut the AI5 chip’s memory in half to 72GB of LP5 and reduced AI6 memory by one-third to 144GB of LP6. He described the changes as “the only way to get enough volume for Optimus production,” while arguing they should have a negligible impact on robot performance. Musk said memory bandwidth matters more for Optimus than total memory capacity, allowing Tesla to reduce RAM without meaningfully limiting the robot’s capabilities. The comments came after Micron ($MU) CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said humanoid robots could eventually require more than 200GB of memory and several terabytes of storage per unit. That could create enormous demand if humanoid robots are produced at scale. At 200GB per robot, 10 billion humanoids would require roughly 2 trillion gigabytes of RAM. Micron expects physical AI to become a significant driver of memory and storage demand by the end of the decade, with customers already testing its next-generation products. Tesla is already preparing for larger Optimus production, including component orders and supplier reviews. The company’s longer-term goal is to eventually produce around 1 million Optimus robots annually.