Musk Takes Tesla's AI Ambitions to Space

In a surprising weekend announcement, Elon Musk revealed Tesla is resurrecting its Dojo project - but this time with celestial aspirations. The rebooted Dojo3 initiative marks a dramatic pivot from terrestrial autonomous driving systems to Space Artificial Intelligence Computing.

The Phoenix Rises: Dojo's Second Chance

Just five months ago, the Dojo project appeared dead in the water. After lead architect Peter Bannon's departure and team dispersion to startup DensityAI, Tesla seemed content relying on NVIDIA and AMD chips manufactured by Samsung.

But Musk dropped hints on X about smooth progress with AI5 chip design before unveiling his cosmic vision for Dojo3. Framing it as a "Moon Landing Project," he issued a public call for engineering talent to develop what could become the world's most mass-produced chip.

A Three-Tiered Computing Strategy Emerges

Tesla's chip roadmap now reveals clear specialization:

• AI5/AI6: Handling earthly matters like FSD autonomous driving and Optimus robots through TSMC/Samsung manufacturing
• AI7 (Dojo3): Designed expressly for orbital computations The timing couldn't be more strategic. With NVIDIA recently open-sourcing its Alpamayo autonomous model at CES 2026 - a direct challenge to Tesla's FSD - Musk appears determined to leapfrog competition by aiming higher... literally.

Power Problems Meet Space Solutions

The visionary CEO argues Earth's straining power grids can't sustain exploding AI computation demands. His audacious fix? Leverage SpaceX's upcoming IPO funds to launch solar-powered computing satellites via Starship rockets.

While vacuum cooling presents formidable engineering hurdles, Musk holds distinct advantages over rivals like OpenAI's Sam Altman who've expressed similar interests. SpaceX gives Tesla unparalleled access to orbital infrastructure - potentially accelerating their space data center ambitions.

Key Points:

• Tesla revives shelved Dojo project with focus on space-based AI computing
• Comes amid intensifying competition in autonomous driving technology from NVIDIA
• Proposed orbital data centers would use solar power continuously
• SpaceX capabilities may give Tesla critical first-mover advantage