Latest news with #PeterBannon
Business Insider
11-08-2025
- Automotive
- Business Insider
Charged: Tesla disbanding Dojo supercomputer team
Institutional investors and professional traders rely on The Fly to keep up-to-the-second on breaking news in the electric vehicle and clean energy space, as well as which stocks in these sectors that the best analysts on Wall Street are saying to buy and sell. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. From the hotly-debated high-flier Tesla (TSLA), Wall Street's newest darling Rivian (RIVN), traditional-stalwarts turned EV-upstarts GM (GM) and Ford (F) to the numerous SPAC-deal makers that have come public in this red-hot space, The Fly has you covered with 'Charged,' a weekly recap of the top stories and expert calls in the sector. Click here to check out Tesla's recent Media Buzz Sentiment as measured by TipRanks. DOJO TEAM DISBANDED: Tesla is disbanding its Dojo team and the project's leader Peter Bannon will be leaving the company, Edward Ludlow of Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The team lost about 20 workers recently to DensityAI and the remaining Dojo workers will be reassigned to other data center and compute projects, sources added. Additionally, Bloomberg's sources added that Tesla plans to increase its reliance on external technology partners, such as Nvidia (NVDA) and AMD (AMD) for compute and Samsung (SSNLF) for chip manufacturing. RIVIAN RESULTS: Rivian reported Q2 losses per share (97c) and Q2 revenue $1.303B, with consensus at (78c) and $1.29B, respectively. RJ Scaringe, Rivian Founder and CEO, said, 'This quarter we made significant progress in R2 development and testing. We also substantially completed the expansion of our Normal, Illinois facility and have begun installing manufacturing equipment in preparation for our start of production. Along with R2, our autonomy platform continues to be one of our major focus areas, and we're excited to share more of our roadmap later this year.' Rivian said it sees FY25 adjusted EBITDA of (2B) -($2.25B), FY25 vehicles delivered 40,000-46,000, and FY25 capital expenditures of $1.8B-$1.9B. The company is maintaining its 2025 delivery guidance range of 40,000 to 46,000. Because of some of the recent changes associated with regulatory credits and its second quarter performance, the company is increasing its guidance for adjusted EBITDA losses to ($2,000) million – ($2,250) million. LUCID RESULTS: Lucid Group (LCID) reported Q2 adjusted losses per share (24c), with consensus at (22c), and Q2 revenue of $259.4M, with consensus at $262.64M. Produced 3,863 vehicles in Q2. Delivered 3,309 vehicles in Q2; up 38.2% compared to Q2 2024. 'We had our sixth consecutive quarter of record deliveries in Q2 and expect to continue this trend as we ramp up Lucid Gravity production in the second half of the year,' said Marc Winterhoff, Interim CEO at Lucid. 'In Q1, we mentioned our ongoing partnership discussions to develop new revenue streams for our EV technology and beyond. The robotaxi partnership we announced with Uber and Nuro is a perfect example aligned with that strategy. We also continued to double down on increasing our brand awareness, introducing Timothee Chalamet, an award-winning actor and cultural icon, as our first global brand ambassador.' 'We delivered solid performance despite a challenging macroeconomic backdrop, thanks to the adaptability and focus of our team in navigating a dynamic environment,' said Taoufiq Boussaid, CFO at Lucid. 'We are focused on business fundamentals to achieve our near-term goals: disciplined cost management, brand building, and continuing to execute our Lucid Gravity launch ramp. We remain committed to strengthening our balance sheet and maintaining long-term alignment with partners and shareholders.' ACQUISITIONS: Archer (ACHR) announced two strategic acquisitions to accelerate the development of its next-generation defense aircraft. One of the acquisitions is of a patent portfolio and hiring of key talent from Overair, a spin-off of Karem Aircraft. The other is the acquisition of key composite manufacturing assets and a ~60,000 square foot manufacturing facility from Mission Critical Composites, a specialized defense composite manufacturer in Southern California.
The Star
11-08-2025
- Automotive
- The Star
Tesla disbands dojo supercomputer team, unwinding key AI effort
Tesla Inc. is disbanding its Dojo team and its leader will leave the company, according to people familiar with the matter, upending the automaker's effort to build an in-house supercomputer for developing driverless-vehicle technology. Peter Bannon, who was heading up Dojo, is leaving and Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has ordered the effort to be shut down, according to the people, who asked not to be identified discussing internal matters. The team has lost about 20 workers recently to newly formed DensityAI, and remaining Dojo workers are being reassigned to other data center and compute projects within Tesla, the people said. Tesla plans to increase its reliance on external technology partners, including Nvidia Corp. and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. for compute and Samsung Electronics Co. for chip manufacturing, the people said. Musk's order marks a major shift for a program years in the making, with Dojo once positioned as central to Tesla's multibillion-dollar effort to pull ahead in the artificial intelligence race. Tesla and Bannon didn't respond to requests for comment. After Bloomberg News first reported the developments, Musk confirmed Tesla's change in approach, writing on X that the next-generation AI chips going into the company's vehicles "will be excellent for inference and at least pretty good for training. All effort is focused on that.' Tesla's shares rebounded after a slight decline overnight, rising 2.1% at 9:52am in New York on Friday. The stock had fallen 20% this year through Thursday's close. Dojo is a Tesla-designed supercomputer used to train the machine-learning models behind the electric-vehicle maker's Autopilot and Full Self-Driving systems, as well as its Optimus humanoid robot. It's based on a custom in-house chip known as D1 and was meant to be used in training AI models. The computer takes in video data captured by vehicles and rapidly processes it to improve the company's algorithms. Analysts have said Dojo could be a key competitive advantage, with Morgan Stanley estimating in 2023 that it could eventually add $500 billion to Tesla's market value. DensityAI, which is poised to come out of stealth soon, is working on chips, hardware and software that will power data centers for AI that are used in robotics, by AI agents and for automotive applications, among other sectors, Bloomberg reported this week. The company was founded by Ganesh Venkataramanan, the former head of Dojo, and ex-Tesla employees Bill Chang and Ben Floering. Talent drain Tesla has seen an exodus of key talent this year as it grapples with rising competition, falling sales and a consumer backlash to Musk's political activity. Milan Kovac, the head of engineering for Optimus, and David Lau, vice president of software engineering, left earlier this year. Bloomberg also reported in June that longtime Musk confidant Omead Afshar had parted ways with the company. The EV maker reached a US$16.5bil (RM69.8bil) deal last month with Samsung to secure AI semiconductors through 2033. The plan is for an upcoming plant in Texas to produce Tesla's next-generation AI6 chip, diversifying Tesla's sourcing beyond leading chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Musk hinted at a strategic pivot during Tesla's most recent quarterly earnings call, suggesting future iterations of the company's in-house technology could converge with that of its partners. "Thinking about Dojo 3 and the AI6 inference chip, it seems like intuitively, we want to try to find convergence there, where it's basically the same chip,' Musk said on the July 23 call. Tesla's CEO also let on early last year that the company might not pursue Dojo in perpetuity, and that it may instead lean more on external partners. "We're pursuing the dual path of Nvidia and Dojo,' Musk said in January 2024. "I would think of Dojo as a long shot. It's a long shot worth taking because the payoff is potentially very high. But it's not something that is a high probability. It's not like a sure thing at all.' – Bloomberg
Business Insider
08-08-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
AI Daily: Meta acquires AI audio startup WaveForms
Catch up on the top artificial intelligence news and commentary by Wall Street analysts on publicly traded companies in the space with this daily recap compiled by The Fly: Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. AI VOICE STARTUP: Meta (META) has acquired AI voice startup WaveForms for an undisclosed sum, The Information reports. WaveForms AI is a startup that utilizes AI to replicate emotion in audio. SUPERCOMPUTER PROJECT: Tesla (TSLA) is disbanding its Dojo team and Peter Bannon, who is heading the group, will leave the company after Elon Musk ordered the effort to be shut down, Ed Ludlow of Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The Dojo team has recently lost around 20 workers to DensityAI and the remaining staffers are being reassigned to other data center and compute projects within Tesla, sources told Bloomberg. Tesla plans to increase its reliance on external technology partners, the people added. AI STAFF: Apple (AAPL) has lost around a dozen of its AI staff, including top researchers, to rivals in recent months, The Financial Times' Michael Acton reports. Apple has lost AI staff members to Meta (META), OpenAI, xAI, and Cohere, according to the report. OpenAI has poached Brandon McKinzie and Dian Ang Yap, two Apple foundation models research engineers, while Cohere hired machine learning scientist Liutong Zhou in June, and Ruoming Pang, head of Apple's foundational models team, departed for Meta last month. Several of the individuals who have left had previously contributed to research papers on AI models that Apple released last year, according to the report. PARTNERSHIP: Atlassian (TEAM) announced a multi-year partnership with Google (GOOGL) Cloud to accelerate cloud transformation and deliver advanced AI capabilities for customers worldwide. The partnership will bring Atlassian's leading AI-powered teamwork platform and apps such as Jira, Confluence, and Loom to Google Cloud's AI-optimized infrastructure. It will also fuel deep integrations between Google and Atlassian products, leveraging Gemini models and Vertex AI, to empower customers to build AI agents that boost productivity, increase collaboration, and accelerate innovation. This partnership marks a major leap forward in Atlassian's multi-cloud strategy, as it brings its widely used apps-Jira, Confluence, and Loom-to Google Cloud, making it easier for organizations to adopt Atlassian's teamwork solutions. With Atlassian apps available on the Google Cloud Marketplace for the first time as part of the partnership, customers will be able to use funds already set aside for Google Cloud to quickly and simply purchase Atlassian subscriptions. AI REVOLUTION: DA Davidson notes that while the much-anticipated GPT-5 release by OpenAI prompted a 3%-10% decline across a broad set of the firm's software coverage, he believes that many software companies are well positioned for the AI revolution. The firm adds that while the debate around LLMs moving into the application layer will continue, it is easier to believe that the software that organizes code and data, and then observes and secures it, will be needed even more as AI ramps up. DA Davidson is positive on Microsoft (MSFT), Snowflake (SNOW), Datadog (DDOG), and Jfrog (FROG).
Business Insider
08-08-2025
- Automotive
- Business Insider
Tesla Stock (TSLA) Tumbles as it Bins Dojo AI Plans
Shares in Tesla (TSLA) dropped today on fears that it is losing ground in the AI race after scrapping its Dojo supercomputer plans. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. According to a report in Bloomberg, Tesla has decided to break up the Dojo team, which was focused on developing in-house chips to power its self-driving technology. Team Disbanded It is understood that Dojo's lead guru, Peter Bannon, is leaving the company, and the remaining team members will be reassigned to other data center and compute projects within Tesla. The move follows the departure of around 20 workers, who left the automaker to start their own AI company called Density AI. It is reportedly busy building chips, hardware, and software that will power data centers for AI that are used in robotics, by AI agents, and in automotive applications. No reasons have been given for the strategic shift which will come as a blow to chief executive Elon Musk who wanted the market to view Tesla as an AI and robotics company. This is despite Auto revenues dominating the company's top line – see above. AI Pals Indeed, Musk has said that Dojo was the cornerstone of Tesla's AI ambitions and its goal to reach full self-driving due to its ability to 'process truly vast amounts of video data.' In 2023, Morgan Stanley predicted Dojo could add $500 billion to the company's market value by unlocking new revenue streams in the form of robotaxis and software services. It is making progress in this aim with the recent launch of its robotaxi service and advances in its self-driving technology. It also has Cortex, which is the company's giant new AI training supercomputer being built in Texas and set to power the Tesla ecosystem -see below – including humanoid robot Optimus and self-driving cars. Despite this, sources told Bloomberg that now Tesla plans to increase its reliance on Nvidia (NVDA), as well as other external tech partners like AMD (AMD) for compute and Samsung for chip manufacturing. Tesla recently signed a $16.5 billion deal with Samsung to make its AI6 inference chips, a chip design that promises to scale from powering self-driving and Optimus all the way to high-performance AI training in data centers. Is TSLA a Good Stock to Buy Now? On TipRanks, TSLA has a Hold consensus based on 13 Buy, 15 Hold and 8 Sell ratings. Its highest price target is $500. TSLA stock's consensus price target is $305.37, implying a 5.24% downside.
Engadget
08-08-2025
- Automotive
- Engadget
Tesla shuts down in-house Dojo AI supercomputer project
As first reported by Bloomberg , Tesla is disbanding the team behind Dojo , its in-house AI-training supercomputer, and reassigning remaining staff to other projects within the company. This marks a shift in the company's compute sourcing strategy for its AI-focused initiatives such as autonomous driving and the Optimus robot . Head of Dojo Peter Bannon is leaving Tesla, which is the latest departure after roughly 20 Dojo team members recently left to form DensityAI . In a response to the Bloomberg report on X, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said , "It doesn't make sense for Tesla to divide its resources and scale two quite different AI chip designs. The Tesla AI5, AI6 and subsequent chips will be excellent for inference and at least pretty good for training. All effort is focused on that." Musk is referring to Tesla's next-generation AI6 chip that will be made by Samsung following a $16.5 billion deal . These chips will drive the real-time decision-making onboard Tesla vehicles and robots. Shutting down Dojo effectively ends Tesla's long-shot ambition of creating its own in-house training architecture and consolidates the company's efforts on the AI5 and AI6 platforms. While Musk says these chips are "pretty good" for training, the company will now rely heavily on vendors like NVIDIA for training-specific silicon, and is spending billions on those chips. AI5 production is targeted to begin in 2026 with AI6 to follow. Like the rest of the big tech world, Musk's companies have been on an AI tear, with xAI's Grok chatbot now available in Tesla vehicles. The company is also piloting its Robotaxi fleet to mixed results . If you buy something through a link in this article, we may earn commission.
