Name: Tesla Dojo D1 Chip
Designed by: Tesla, Inc.
Announced: August 19, 2021 (AI Day)
First Deployment: 2023 (pilot systems), with full-scale training racks in 2024–2025
Fabricated by: TSMC
Process Node: N7 (D1 generation); future iterations expected on 5nm or 3nm
Use Case: Neural network training for autonomous vehicles and humanoid robotics
Architecture Type: Custom AI training ASIC with scalar, vector, and matrix execution units

Overview

The Tesla Dojo chip, known as the D1, is Tesla’s in-house AI training processor created to support its Full Self-Driving (FSD) vision system and robotics initiatives. Designed from the ground up, the chip enables massive-scale neural network training using vision data from millions of vehicles on the road. Dojo allows Tesla to break away from dependence on third-party GPUs (such as Nvidia), providing a vertically integrated AI compute platform.

Dojo is not a general-purpose processor—it’s purpose-built to optimize power efficiency, low-latency data exchange, and dense video-based training, which Tesla believes are essential for building real-world AI.

D1 Chip Technical Specifications

Dojo scales up through modular tile-based compute systems:

Dojo Tile

• 25 D1 chips in a 5×5 mesh grid

• ~9 PFLOPs of FP16/BF16 performance per tile

• Chips interconnected with edge-mesh routing

• Designed for minimal communication latency

Rack and Exapod

• 10 tiles per tray, multiple trays per cabinet

• Dojo cabinet includes power delivery, cooling, and switching

• Dojo Exapod = 120+ tiles → 1+ ExaFLOP of compute (FP16)

Tesla envisions Dojo Exapods as AI factories for self-driving models, Tesla Bot (Optimus), and broader real-world AI applications.

Software Stack

• Custom compiler and scheduler for Tesla’s AI workloads

• Tensor and graph compilers optimized for Dojo ISA

• End-to-end vertical integration: silicon → tile → compiler → data pipeline

Roadmap Timeline

Strategic Importance

• In-house training hardware accelerates AI development without Nvidia

• Enables massive video dataset training for autonomy at lower cost

• Supports AI model iteration speeds that Tesla claims outperform traditional cloud clusters

• Platform for future humanoid robot training (Optimus)

Notable Quotes

“This is not a chip, it’s a training supercomputer in disguise.”
— Ganesh Venkataramanan, Tesla Dojo Project Leader (AI Day 2021)

“We’re using video-level data to train our models. That requires orders of magnitude more compute than tabular or text data. Dojo makes that possible.”
— Andrej Karpathy, Former Tesla Director of AI

“Dojo will be the fastest AI training computer in the world.”
— Elon Musk, Tesla Q3 2023 Earnings Call

“Dojo is optimized for bandwidth and scalability, not just peak FLOPs.”
— Pete Bannon, Tesla chip architect, ex-Apple PA Semi

“With Dojo, we’re building something that nobody else is building—we’re optimizing for the real world, not just benchmarks.”
— Elon Musk, Tesla AI Day 2021

“We built every part of Dojo ourselves—cores, interconnect, memory fabric, software. It’s Tesla silicon, end to end.”

Comparison with Nvidia and Google

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