Tesla to spend $500M to convey its Dojo supercomputer undertaking to Buffalo manufacturing facility

Tesla will spend $500 million to construct one among its so-called “Dojo” supercomputers at its Buffalo, New York manufacturing facility, the state’s governor Kathy Hochul stated Friday throughout a information convention simply days after CEO Elon Musk referred to as the undertaking a “lengthy shot.”

Tesla’s determination was “knowledgeable by New York’s dependable energy provide, robust expertise pipeline and availability of usable area for the undertaking,” in response to Hochul’s workplace.

Dojo, which was first introduced at Tesla’s “AI Day” occasion in 2021, is a supercomputer meant to assist advance the corporate’s still-unrealized objective of constructing a self-driving automotive. Tesla plans to make use of the supercomputer to course of reams of video knowledge that come off of its electrical autos with the intention to prepare the AI that now powers its most superior driver help software program, which it calls Full Self-Driving Beta. Musk stated last year that Tesla plans to spend “effectively over $1 billion” on Dojo.

Bringing the Dojo undertaking to Buffalo is the most recent shift in Tesla’s priorities for the placement, which has changed into something of a boondoggle for New York state. As soon as dubbed “Gigafactory 2,” Tesla took over the manufacturing facility from SolarCity when it acquired the troubled photo voltaic panel firm in 2016. The state had already dedicated $750 million to the plant by that time. Tesla promised to make Photo voltaic Roof tiles there, however struggled to supply the product at scale. Its associate, Panasonic, pulled out of the plant in 2020, and Tesla pivoted to using individuals who labeled coaching knowledge for its less-advanced Autopilot software program.

Musk said final April that he believed the Dojo supercomputer undertaking was a “lengthy shot guess” that might “repay in a really, very large method… within the multi-hundred-billion-dollar degree.”

He reiterated the purpose this week on a name with analysts. “It’s not, like, a positive factor in any respect, It’s a high-risk, high-payoff program,” he stated. “We’re scaling it up, and we’ve plans for Dojo 1.5, Dojo 2, Dojo 3, and whatnot. So, you already know, I believe it’s received potential, however the form of dimension sufficient excessive danger, excessive payoff.”

Whereas the $500 million funding obtained cheers throughout Hochul’s press convention, Musk downplayed the determine in a social media put up on X, noting the corporate would spend far extra money on Nvidia {hardware} in 2024.

“The governor is right that this can be a Dojo Supercomputer, however $500M, whereas clearly a big sum of cash, is just equal to a 10k H100 system from Nvidia,” Musk wrote within the put up on X. “Tesla will spend greater than that on Nvidia {hardware} this yr. The desk stakes for being aggressive in AI are not less than a number of billion {dollars} per yr at this level.”