When it comes to AI investment, Tesla is putting its money where its mouth is—to the tune of $1 billion in just in Q1.
The stats, shared by Elon Musk on X, underscore just how pivotal AI has become to Tesla’s FSD ambitions and its core autonomous vehicle business. “Tesla will spend around $10B this year in combined training and inference AI, the latter being primarily in car, any company not spending at this level, and doing so efficiently, cannot compete,” Elon says.
Tesla will spend around $10B this year in combined training and inference AI, the latter being primarily in car.
Any company not spending at this level, and doing so efficiently, cannot compete.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 28, 2024
With archrivals like Waymo, and China’s top EV upstarts all racing to deliver autonomous driving at scale, the pressure is on for Tesla to maintain—and extend—its AI lead.
Between the massive capital outlays, the rapid capacity expansions, and Musk’s fighting words, one thing is abundantly clear: the AI arms race is heating up. For Tesla, it’s invest big or get left behind in the quest for self-driving supremacy.