Tesla abruptly ends Dojo supercomputer as Musk shifts focus to next-gen AI chips - what went wrong with the project?
Elon Musk confirmed that the resources would now be focused on making next-generation AI chips. Tesla is having more and more trouble with both its AI development and electric vehicle sales, which is why it is making this move. There is a lot of turmoil inside the company, and sales of electric vehicles are slowing down.Elon Musk stated on X that Tesla would no longer be using the specialized hardware and team that worked on Dojo, as per a report by Observer.
ALSO READ: Orca attack mystery: What really happened to marine trainer Jessica Radcliffe
Tesla's AI Day in 2021 was the first time Dojo was shown to the public. It was made to handle a lot of driving data for the company's Full Self-Driving (FSD) system. It ran on Tesla's D1 chip, which was made by TSMC. The company promised that it would be more efficient, cost less, and depend less on chipmakers like Nvidia. But Musk said that the project had gotten to a point where its future didn't make sense anymore, as per a report by Observer.ALSO READ : Apple's iPhone 17 color lineup leaks: Stunning new hues spark frenzy online Musk said, 'Once it became clear that all paths converged to AI6, I had to shut down Dojo and make some tough personnel choices, as Dojo 2 was now an evolutionary dead end." This meant making hard decisions about who to hire and fire, like breaking up the Dojo team of about 20 people.
Once it became clear that all paths converged to AI6, I had to shut down Dojo and make some tough personnel choices, as Dojo 2 was now an evolutionary dead end.
Dojo 3 arguably lives on in the form of a large number of AI6 SoCs on a single board. — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 10, 2025
Now that Dojo is out of the picture, Tesla is focusing its AI efforts on two new chips: the AI5, made by TSMC, and the AI6, made by Samsung. The AI5 chip is made to run self-driving cars and robots. The AI6 chip can handle both deployment and big AI training tasks, as per a report by Observer.Elon Musk says that combining chip development will make things easier and save money. He said, "Putting a lot of AI5/AI6 chips on a board in a supercomputer cluster makes sense, whether for inference or training, just to make the network cabling less complicated and cheaper by a few orders of magnitude."
ALSO READ: Jackie Bezos, Jeff Bezos' mother, passes away at 78 — what is Lewy Body Dementia, the disease she battled? This change also means that Tesla no longer has to keep two separate lines of AI chips: one for inference (running trained models to make decisions in real time) and one for training (giving AI systems huge datasets to teach them how to find patterns), as per a report by Observer.Dojo's closure comes at a time when Tesla's main business, making electric cars, is having trouble. Tesla's electric vehicle sales fell 16% year over year in the quarter that ended on June 30, and total sales fell 12%. The company's share of the U.S. market has also dropped a lot, from 75% in 2022 to less than 50% now, as per a report by Observer.Due to this financial pressure, Tesla has to focus on projects that will make the most money. Tesla wants to speed up improvements to its FSD system and robotics programs by focusing on AI5 and AI6. They don't want to stretch their resources too thin.The decision also comes after months of problems within the Dojo division, including the loss of several important engineers.
Why did Tesla close down Dojo?Elon Musk stated that all development paths had converged on the AI6 chip, rendering Dojo redundant.
What will replace Dojo? Tesla is now focusing on AI5 and AI6 chips for self-driving, robotics, and AI training.
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