(Reuters) – Tesla will streamline research on AI chips to focus on developing inference chips that will be used to run AI models and make real-time decisions, CEO Elon Musk said it ordered the shutdown of the Inhouse Dojo Supercomputer team after media reports.
Bloomberg News on Thursday said people familiar with the issue said Musk ordered the dojo team to be dissolved and team leader Peter Bannon left the company.
Tesla (TSLA.O) did not reply to Reuters' request for comment.
The Dojo Supercomputer is designed around a custom training chip, and has processed the vast amount of data and video from Tesla EVS to train the automaker's autonomous driving software.
“It makes no sense for Tesla to split its resources and scale two completely different AI chip designs,” Musk said in an X post late Thursday.
“The Tesla AI5, AI6 and subsequent chips are excellent at reasoning and are pretty good at training at least. All the efforts are focused on that,” he said without directly mentioning Dojo.
Analysts at Morgan Stanley, led by Adam Jonas, valued Dojo Supercomputer at $500 billion in 2023, saying it opened a new market for automakers beyond car sales, similar to how Amazon's cloud units increase profits for e-commerce companies.
“Dojo is a key acceleration at the intersection of hardware and software,” the broker said on August 4th. Jonas did not immediately respond to questions about whether the latest developments would undermine Tesla's rating.
Tech companies are increasingly designing custom chips to reduce latency, power and costs, and integrating fewer architectures.
Tesla has been restructuring for the past year, with stock prices falling as EV sales hit more competitively and especially as European consumers clashes with backlash from Musk's political views.
The company has seen multiple execution departures, cutting thousands of jobs, focusing on AI-driven autonomous driving technology and robotics, and Musk is pursuing integrated strategies across his high-tech business empire.
Musk said the next generation of AI5 chips will be produced at the end of 2026, and last month announced a $16.5 billion deal to raise AI6 chips for Samsung Electronics (005930.ks), but did not provide a production timeline.
He says future AI inference chips, including AI6, will be deployed in self-driving cars and their Optimus humanoid robots, but that substantial computing power could enable wider AI applications.
The Dojo team recently lost around 20 workers at the newly formed density, with the remaining workers being reassigned to other data centers and project calculation projects within Tesla, the Bloomberg report said.
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