Tesla's making a bunker for its supercomputer Dojo.

Tesla has plans to build a new facility in Austin, Texas to house its powerful Dojo AI supercomputer. It aims to invest over $1 billion in Dojo by 2024, which will be used for training its own AI models (for self-driving) and potentially selling resources like AWS does.

What's going on here?

Tesla is investing over $1 billion to develop its own powerful AI supercomputer called Dojo to boost its self-driving capabilities.

What does this mean?

Dojo is supposed to grow into 100 ExaPods (a custom unit used by Tesla) by next year. The existing facility at Palo Alto can accommodate only 7 ExaPods, which is driving the effort behind this new facility. The new Austin facility will supplement its California data centre to accommodate Dojo's growth.

Tesla designed its own specialized AI chip called D1 to run Dojo. Alongside the new facility, it has also doubled the order for these D1 chips from Taiwan.

Why should I care?

Musk, investors and market analysts are betting big on the Dojo supercomputer by Tesla. The rationale behind the backing is twofold:

• The access to independent compute resources for better self-driving software

• And the option to sell the access to Dojo in an AWS-like manner meaning revenue outside the Tesla vehicle sales.

More broadly, Tesla developing its own AI supercomputer highlights the growing importance of AI across industries. Companies like Tesla now view robust AI systems as a strategic priority.