Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc, reported that Tesla is all set to restart developing the third-generation custom-made supercomputer, Dojo, a challenging attempt by Tesla to build its own supercomputer. It was initiated with an aim to train the machine-learning systems behind Autopilot, Optimus robot and Full Self-Driving.
What Initialized Dojo3
Elon dropped this update months after Tesla abruptly decided to shut down its development and drive out the team behind the creation. He proposed the restart on an X post on Sunday, stating that, “Now that the AI5 chip design is in good shape, Tesla will restart work on Dojo3.”
He also indicated the company is recruiting fresh roles for the project by adding, “If you’re interested in working on what will be the highest volume chips in the world, send a note to [email protected] with 3 bullet points on the toughest technical problems you’ve solved.” Musk’s comment also explicitly indicated that Dojo 3 is catalysed by Tesla’s in-house chips, the long-awaited A15.
At the Q2 2025 earnings call of Tesla, Elon said that the company is planning to merge the Dojo3 chip with the A16 inference chip, a future -generation chip intended to transform and unify Tesla’s architecture across robotics, vehicles and data centres. This was scheduled to be handled by a new facility in Texas, thus opening another production hub for the company outside Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., which was Tesla’s usual supplier.
Historical Context of Dojo3
Dojo was a supercomputer initially deployed in 2023, designed to train the company’s own machine learning and driver assistance software. The company used a mixture of in-house chips and those supplied by NVIDIA Corporation for its computing clusters. However, Tesla is now leaning on Samsung Electronics for its production. Both companies signed a $16.5 billion agreement last year for the supply of AI chips through 2033. This deal marks a significant milestone for Samsung’s chip foundry, which handles outsourced production, also building uncertainty about Elon’s previous voice.
Dojo was initially handled by Peter Bannon, who reportedly left during the restructuring of the team in 2025. Dojo was then operated on a custom D1 chip, an in-house built chip with ingested camera data from vehicles, which can be swiftly processed. Back in 2023, an analyst at Morgan Stanley said that Dojo might add $500 billion to the market cap of Tesla, not only it didn’t happen, but on the contrary, the company shelved the project in 2025 after losing many of the talented engineers that handled the project, including the head of engineering of Optimus, Milan Kovac and vice president of Tesla David Lau. In the meantime, Tesla went through a lot of storms, like it had to deal with its declining sales, growing competition and also political blowback because of Elon’s public statements. These all eventually led to piling up the Dojo project.
However, as the A15 is now stable, the efforts are in momentum all over again. The company has bagged the deal with Samsung to catalyse the project; furthermore, Elon’s net worth has pushed over to $780 billion, which makes him the first person to strike a distance of $800 billion. All these signals a green card for the project and the company as a whole.
