Tesla shuts down Dojo supercomputer team, reassigns workers amid strategic AI shift, ETAuto

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has ordered to shut down its Dojo supercomputer team, with team leader Peter Bannon departing the company, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Dojo supercomputer was designed to process vast amounts of data and video from Tesla EVs to train the automaker’s autonomous-driving software.

The team recently lost about 20 workers to newly formed DensityAI, and the remaining Dojo workers are being reassigned to other data center and compute projects within Tesla, the report said.

Reuters could not independently verify the report.

Over the past year, Tesla, amid a company-wide restructuring, experienced multiple executive departures and thousands of job cuts. Several key Tesla executives, including leaders in robotics, battery development, and public policy, have recently departed.

Tesla has redirected its focus to AI-driven self-driving technology and robotics, with CEO Elon Musk pursuing an integration strategy across his business empire. In March, xAI acquired the social media platform X for $33 billion to bolster its chatbot training capabilities, while Tesla integrated the Grok chatbot into its vehicles.

In July, Musk dismissed the possibility of a merger between Tesla and xAI, but announced plans for a shareholder vote to consider Tesla’s investment in the AI startup.

The automaker also plans to increase its reliance on external technology partners such as Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices for compute, and Samsung Electronics for chip manufacturing, as per Bloomberg.

Tesla, Nvidia, AMD and Samsung did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.

Last month, Samsung secured a $16.5 billion deal to supply AI chips to Tesla, expected to power self-driving cars, humanoid robots and data centers. The deal is unlikely to resolve Tesla’s immediate challenges, such as declining EV sales and efforts to scale its fledgling robotaxi service.