Tesla’s Dojo supercomputer is DOA — now what?
On Thursday, Bloomberg reported that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has ordered its Dojo supercomputer project to be disbanded after the project’s leader and most of its employees left to join another AI project. The news marked a major setback to the automaker’s efforts to develop its own in-house developed supercomputer to train AI models for self-driving cars. And it signaled yet another blow to Tesla’s ongoing efforts to retain its top talent.
For years, Tesla touted its custom built supercomputer meant to train machine-learning models for Tesla’s Autopilot, Full Self-Driving, and Optimus robots as the thing that will give it the leg up over other autonomous vehicle developers. While the rest of the industry was relying on external suppliers for compute and chips, Tesla would design its hardware in-house. According to Musk’s vision, a vertically integrated AI effort would allow Tesla to leapfrog over its more supply-constrained competitors.
But technical delays and a talent exodus seemed to push success further and further away. In 2018, Jim Keller, the famed AI chip developer who was first hired to lead Tesla’s chip making efforts, left. His successor, Ganesh Venkataramanan, left in 2023 to found Density AI. The latest to leave is Peter Bannon, who had been leading Dojo since Venkataramanan’s departure. He is also joining Density AI, along with 20 other ex-Tesla engineers.
