Tesla has shut down its Dojo supercomputer project and dissolved the team behind it, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Peter Bannon, who led the effort, is leaving the company, while the remaining team members are being reassigned to other data center projects. The decision reportedly came directly from CEO Elon Musk.
Dojo was planned as a core part of Tesla's AI infrastructure, designed to train neural networks for autonomous driving features like Autopilot and Full Self-Driving, as well as for the company's humanoid robot Optimus. The supercomputer was built around Tesla's own D1 chip and processed video data from its vehicles to improve AI systems.
Musk: Focus shifts to new AI chips
After the news broke, Musk said on X that Tesla will now focus on developing its new AI5 and AI6 chip series. These chips are "excellent for inference and at least pretty good for training," according to Musk. He argued that running two separate chip architectures in parallel - as was the case with Dojo and the new line - doesn't make sense.
Instead, Tesla is ramping up partnerships with outside technology companies. Going forward, most compute power will come from Nvidia and AMD. To produce its new AI6 chips, Tesla signed a $16.5 billion deal with Samsung in July 2025. The chips will be manufactured at a new facility in Texas.
The move away from Dojo doesn't come as a complete surprise. Back in January 2024, Musk called the project a "long shot" with an uncertain outcome.
Talent exodus and a new startup from ex-Dojo engineers
The strategy shift has led to a noticeable talent drain at Tesla. Around 20 former Dojo team members have left, many joining a new startup called DensityAI. According to Bloomberg, DensityAI develops chips, hardware, and software for AI data centers, focusing on areas like robotics, AI agents, and automotive applications.
DensityAI was founded by Ganesh Venkataramanan, who previously led the Dojo project, along with former Tesla engineers Bill Chang and Ben Floering. Martin Viecha, Tesla's former head of investor relations, has also joined as an advisor.
