Tesla shares tumble as Musk announces $1 billion supercomputer project

Tesla Inc. experienced a significant drop in its shares, nearly 9 per cent, on Thursday, a day after CEO Elon Musk revealed ambitious plans for Project Dojo during an investor conference call.

Project Dojo, a cutting-edge supercomputer, aims to revolutionise Tesla's autonomous driving capabilities by processing vast amounts of data, particularly video data collected from Tesla vehicles.

According to a report by Bloomberg, the technology will play a crucial role in developing advanced self-driving software for the company's fleet of electric cars.

During Wednesday's conference call with auto analysts, Musk declared that Tesla expects to invest more than $1 billion into Project Dojo by the end of 2024. This financial projection sent shockwaves through the market, leading to a 4 per cent decline in Tesla's share price after the market closed on Wednesday. The downward trend persisted on Thursday afternoon, as the stock continued to fall.

The Verge reported that Tesla's existing supercomputer already relies on Nvidia GPUs, but the company aims to take its AI capabilities to new heights with the in-house-designed Dojo computer and its accompanying chips. This AI machine-learning tool will primarily focus on training Tesla's fleet of autonomous vehicles, enhancing their self-driving capabilities.

Addressing concerns about the staggering costs associated with Project Dojo, Tesla's Chief Financial Officer Zachary Kirkhorn reassured analysts during the conference call that the expenses were well within the company's financial projections for the next three years.

Musk highlighted the vast reservoir of video data at Tesla's disposal, derived from customer usage of the company's autopilot camera-based driver-assistance system and its full self-driving beta feature. With over 300 million miles of data accumulated, this treasure trove of information will fuel Tesla's advancements towards achieving a fully self-driving future.

In its latest earnings release on July 19, Tesla revealed that manufacturing of the Dojo training computer has already commenced.