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Tesla will spend $ 500 million to build one of its so - called “ Dojo ” supercomputers at its Buffalo , New York factory , thestate ’s governorKathy Hochul said Friday during a news league just days after CEO Elon Musk called the project a “ long scene . ”
Tesla ’s determination was “ informed by New York ’s reliable power supply , hard talent line and availability of usable space for the project , ” according to Hochul ’s part .
Dojo , which was first announced at Tesla ’s “ AI Day ” event in 2021 , is a supercomputer meant to help encourage the company ’s still - unrealized goal of work up a self - driving car . Tesla plans to use the supercomputer to work on reams of video data that come off of its galvanizing vehicles in ordination to train the AI that now powers its most forward-looking gadget driver assistance software program , which it calls Full Self - Driving genus Beta . Musk saidlast yearthat Tesla plans to spend “ well over $ 1 billion ” on Dojo .
convey the Dojo project to Buffalo is the tardy shifting in Tesla ’s priorities for the location , which has turn intosomething of a boondogglefor New York state . Once dubbed “ Gigafactory 2 , ” Tesla took over the manufacturing plant from SolarCity when it acquire the troubled solar panel troupe in 2016 . The state of matter had already committed $ 750 million to the industrial plant by that power point . Tesla promised to make Solar Roof tile there , but struggled to grow the Cartesian product at exfoliation . Its partner , Panasonic , pulled out of the flora in 2020 , and Tesla swivel to employing people wholabeled training datafor its less - advanced Autopilot software package .
Musksaidlast April that he believed the Dojo supercomputer project was a “ long shot bet ” that could “ yield off in a very , very big manner … in the multi - hundred - billion - dollar level . ”
He iterate the point this week on a call with analysts . “ It ’s not , like , a sure matter at all , It ’s a high - jeopardy , high - payoff programme , ” he said . “ We are scale it up , and we have architectural plan for Dojo 1.5 , Dojo 2 , Dojo 3 , and knickknackery . So , you have intercourse , I think it ’s got potential , but the kind of size enough high risk of exposure , eminent issue . ”
While the $ 500 million investment invite sunniness during Hochul ’s closet conference , Musk downplayed the figure in a societal media spot on X , observe the company would expend far more money on Nvidia hardware in 2024 .
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“ The governor is correct that this is a Dojo Supercomputer , but $ 500 M , while obviously a large sum of money , is only tantamount to a 10k H100 system from Nvidia , ” Musk wrote in the post on X. “ Tesla will spend more than that on Nvidia hardware this year . The mesa stakes for being free-enterprise in AI are at least several billion dollar per year at this point . ”
