- Tesla restarts Dojo 3 after previous supercomputer projects failed to meet expectations
- The performance of the AI5 chip will reportedly rival Nvidia Hopper and consume less power.
- Future chips, AI6 and AI7, are planned for incremental technical evolution.
Tesla has restarted development of its Dojo 3 supercomputer project after shelving or abandoning previous versions.
Elon Musk confirmed the move on X, linking the reboot directly to progress on Tesla’s in-house AI5 chip.
Previous The Dojo’s efforts did not meet expectations, and Dojo 1 quickly lost relevance Nvidia and Dojo 2 systems will be canceled before completion.
Now that the AI5 chip design is in good condition, Tesla will restart work on Dojo3. If you are interested in working on what will be the highest volume chips in the world, send a note to [email protected] with 3 bullet points about the most difficult technical problems you have solved.January 18, 2026
Tesla reboots Dojo 3 with ambitious in-house AI chips
Dojo 3 is presented as a catch-up attempt rather than a clear breakthrough, as Tesla claims the technical foundation is now strong enough to justify reallocating engineers and capital to the project.
Dojo 3 is expected to be Tesla’s first supercomputer built entirely with in-house hardware, without relying on Nvidia components.
Previous Dojo designs mixed Tesla silicon with external silicon. GPU products, limiting differentiation and control, while the new approach aligns chip design, system architecture and software under one roof.
Tesla has openly recruited engineers to scale chip production, signaling high-volume manufacturing ambitions.
Central to Dojo 3 is Tesla’s plan to release custom AI chips every nine months, although this will likely test the company’s resolve.
In terms of application, the AI4 and AI5 chips are linked to the development of autonomous driving and humanoid robotics, and AI6 is linked to Optimus and large-scale data center deployments.
Future iterations are already planned, including AI7, although expectations point to incremental evolution rather than radical redesigns.
Beyond vehicles and robots, the supercomputer could support Tesla’s broader ecosystem of AI tools, including training models that compete with established cloud providers.
These claims put Dojo 3 in direct competition with mature AI infrastructure providers.
According to social commentator Nic Cruz Patane, “Tesla’s chipset is no joke,” noting that the AI5’s performance is roughly comparable to Nvidia’s Hopper on a single chip, approaching Blackwell levels when paired, and running at about 250W compared to the H100’s 700W or the Blackwell’s 1,000W+ at full spec.
Tesla claims its chip designs deliver similar power with lower power, but maintaining the planned release cycle will test its discipline and consistency in execution.
Its technical promises are ambitious and financially motivated, especially given the rising cost of external AI hardware.
Dojo 3 may reduce Tesla’s reliance on third-party silicon, but success will require a consistency that previous projects lacked.
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