Elon Musk confirms shutdown of Tesla Dojo, ‘an evolutionary dead end’

Elon Musk confirmed over the weekend reports that Tesla has disbanded the team working on its Dojo AI training supercomputer. This decision comes just weeks after Musk announced he expected Tesla’s second cluster to be operating “at scale” in 2026.

“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,” Musk posted on X, the social media platform he owns, on Sunday. He added, “Dojo 3 arguably lives on in the form of a large number of AI6 [systems-on-a-chip] on a single board.”

Tesla had initially planned to build a second Dojo factory, referred to as “Dojo 2,” powered by a second-generation D2 chip, following the launch of its first Dojo supercomputer which utilized a mix of Nvidia GPUs and in-house D1 chips. It appears the D2 chip development has been halted along with the broader Dojo project.

The company is now shifting its focus to its AI5 and AI6 chips. The AI5 chip is primarily built to power FSD, Tesla’s driver assistance system, while the AI6 is designed for both onboard inference—promising to power self-driving in cars and autonomous capabilities in humanoid robots—and large-scale AI training. These chips are being manufactured by TSMC (AI5) and Samsung (AI6), respectively.

“It doesn’t make sense for Tesla to divide its resources and scale two quite different AI chip designs,” Musk posted late Friday evening. “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.” He further suggested that this consolidated approach could be termed “Dojo 3.”

Musk has been discussing Dojo since 2019, highlighting it as a cornerstone for Tesla’s mission to achieve full self-driving and commercialize humanoid robots. However, talk of Dojo reportedly paused around August 2024, when Musk began promoting “Cortex,” described as a “giant new AI training supercluster being built at Tesla HQ in Austin to solve real-world AI.” The current status of the Cortex project remains unconfirmed.

TechCrunch has reached out to Tesla for clarification on the Cortex project and the fate of the $500 million Dojo facility constructed in Buffalo, New York. This strategic pivot occurs amid challenges for Tesla, including falling EV sales and significant brand impact following Musk’s political involvements. The company is under pressure to reaffirm its autonomy advancements, particularly following a recent limited robotaxi launch in Austin that reportedly encountered numerous problematic driving incidents.