Reviewed by Gotrade Internal Analyst
Gotrade News - Elon Musk signaled Tesla is stepping back on the gas in autonomous-driving AI, saying its AI5 in-car chip is nearly complete and Dojo 3 is being restarted. At the same time, Nvidia is pushing harder to become the default autonomy platform for many brands, putting the AV rivalry back in focus.
Key Takeaways:
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Musk said Tesla’s AI5 chip design is almost done and AI6 is already underway, targeting a 9-month design cycle.
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Tesla is restarting Dojo 3, pointing to renewed ambition in large-scale AI training after focusing on in-car inference.
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Nvidia is doubling down on a “platform for everyone” approach via Alpamayo and the NVIDIA DRIVE ecosystem.
The Street reported Musk said Tesla’s AI5 self-driving chip is close to completion and that AI6 is already in early development. He also said Tesla will restart Dojo 3, pulling the company back into large-scale AI training.
In Tesla’s framing, AI5 and AI6 are primarily about in-car inference, running Full Self-Driving neural nets inside the vehicle. That supports Tesla’s closed-loop approach that combines in-car hardware, a camera-first software stack, and data from its own fleet.
Why Tesla’s in-car chips are back in the spotlight
Musk said AI5 is expected to enter high-volume production in 2027 and replace AI4 hardware, with AI6 already progressing and more generations planned after that. If Tesla delivers, it strengthens control over unit costs, chip design, and supply-chain leverage for in-vehicle compute.
A key point is that Tesla is not newly “switching away” from Nvidia, since the report notes Tesla moved away from Nvidia for in-car compute back in 2019. This update is closer to doubling down on a multi-year internal strategy.
Nvidia’s play to power everyone else
Nvidia introduced Alpamayo at CES 2026 as an open-source autonomous-vehicle AI toolkit. The announcement reinforces Nvidia’s full-stack pitch through NVIDIA DRIVE, spanning in-vehicle computers, a software stack, and safety, validation, and simulation tools.
For automakers without Tesla’s long runway and large R&D budgets, Nvidia’s approach can be a shortcut to getting autonomy programs moving without building every layer from scratch. That is why this rivalry is not only about chip performance, but also about ecosystem strength and ease of adoption.
Tesla’s return to training is also a tougher arena. Frontier-model training is extremely compute-hungry, so the more realistic near-term outcome may be a hybrid path, expanding internal capability while still leaning on the most established compute ecosystems where scale and economics matter.
For investors, the real story is follow-through, not the roadmap headlines. Markets will be watching whether Dojo 3 produces measurable training capacity and whether Tesla’s full-stack approach accelerates real-world autonomy progress.
In equities, the theme matters for Tesla, which is trying to tighten control over its autonomy stack, and for Nvidia, which wants to be the industry standard for many players. The risk and upside will move with execution data, customer adoption, and real-world validation.
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Reference:
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The Street, Elon Musk drops a surprise curveball on Nvidia. Diakses pada 20 Januari 2026
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