Tesla’s project lead for the Dojo supercomputer development left his position after five years of working with the electric vehicle giant, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter.
The sudden shakeup posed a major setback in Tesla’s push toward achieving full autonomy.
Report highlights
Project lead Ganesh Venkataramanan supervised the Dojo supercomputer efforts for the past five years. For some reason, Venkataramanan reportedly left Tesla and the project last month.
Former Apple executive and 7-year Tesla director filled the vacant position to continue the company’s push for true full self-driving technology.
However, Tesla Chief Elon Musk and representatives have yet to confirm the report.
About Dojo Supercomputer
Dojo is a supercomputer Tesla introduced in 2021 to train the machine learning (AI) models behind its self-driving technology.
In addition, the company also expects Dojo to accelerate the development of its innovative Optimus Bot.
Dojo accumulates data from Tesla’s electric vehicles and rapidly processes it to upgrade the current algorithms.
For context, Venkataramanan, Bannon, and other silicon industry leaders designed the custom D1 chip that powers Tesla’s Dojo supercomputer. Former Dojo project lead also built Tesla’s AI hardware in 2016, along with other silicon teams.
However, one of the unnamed sources revealed that Venkataramanan and at least one team member were no longer present in the company’s internal directories for an unknown reason.
Progress
CEO Musk recently announced plans to spend more than $1 billion on the Dojo supercomputer by the end of 2024. As EV-a2z reported, Tesla is aiming for 100 exaflops to match the required high computing power for Level 5 autonomy.
In the past weeks, Tesla reportedly installed Dojo’s hardware at a centralized site in Palo Alto. Notably, the supercomputer heavily relies on multiple data hubs in various sites.
Analyst Morgan Stanley previously forecasted Dojo would boost Tesla’s market valuation to an additional $500 billion. Tesla has already announced the launch of the Dojo supercomputer D1 chip production by industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.
All that said, the departure of the Venkataramanan can substantially hamper Tesla’s progressive push in Dojo project development. The automaker will now scramble to continue the project under a new leadership.
