Tesla Shifts AI Strategy, Ceases ‘Project Dojo’

In-house supercomputer initiative folded into chip development

Tesla is reportedly winding down its ambitious “Project Dojo,” a move confirmed by CEO Elon Musk. The decision pivots the company’s extensive artificial intelligence resources toward a unified chip strategy, potentially impacting the development of its autonomous driving systems.

Musk Confirms Pivot to Unified AI Chips

Reports that Tesla was stepping away from Project Dojo were confirmed by Elon Musk himself via the social media platform X. The move stems from a strategic decision to consolidate resource allocation, avoiding the parallel development of two distinct AI chip architectures.

Tesla was indeed halting its Dojo initiative.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 4, 2024

Instead of pursuing Dojo’s specialized supercomputing hardware, the company will leverage its in-house AI5 and AI6 chips for training its Full Self-Driving (FSD) and Autopilot systems. Musk indicated that integrating numerous AI5/AI6 chips into a supercomputer cluster offers a more efficient solution for both training and inference tasks.

AI6 Emerges as Dojo’s Successor

The operational capabilities of the AI5 and AI6 chips are expected to extend to Tesla’s consumer-facing products, including the Optimus robot, Cybercab, and the next-generation Roadster. This consolidation signals a streamlined approach to AI development across the company’s diverse product portfolio.

The strategy of employing AI6 chips for training has drawn significant attention. Tech veteran and former Apple and Rivian engineer Phil Beisel remarked on X that “AI6 is now Dojo.” He elaborated that the AI6 chip shares fundamental design elements with Dojo’s D1 chip, particularly in neural network processing.

“Dojo is Tesla’s AI training supercomputer, built around a custom chip known as the D1. The D1 and AI5/AI6 share many core design elements, particularly the math operations used in neural networks (e.g., matrix multiplication) and highly parallel processing. Dojo had a unique feature: chips arranged in a 5×5 grid using a system-on-wafer design, with etched interconnects enabling high-speed data transfer. In a sense, Dojo will live on as the generalized AI6. Going forward, all efforts will focus on AI6.”

—Phil Beisel, Tech Veteran

Elon Musk corroborated Beisel‘s assessment with a simple “bullseye” emoji on X. The CEO expressed enthusiasm for the AI6 chip, which is slated for production at Samsung’s new fabrication facility in Texas. Musk plans to personally oversee the production line to expedite the rollout of Tesla’s AI6 computer systems. NVIDIA, a competitor in AI hardware, reported record revenue of $26 billion in the first quarter of 2024, highlighting the booming market for AI processing power (NVIDIA Q4 2024 Earnings).