Tesla’s next-gen Dojo AI training tile is in production, according to supplier Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC).

Tesla has been heavily investing in AI training compute power both through buying NVIDIA hardware and building its own under its Dojo program.

The first generation of its Dojo super computing platform went into operation last summer.

Shortly after, it was reported that Tesla had expanded its partnership with TSMC, a large semiconductor company that manufactures the Dojo chip for the automaker.

Now, TSMC has confirmed that Tesla’s next-generation Dojo chip has entered production and they are working on tech that could deliver much greater power to Dojo in 2027 (via IEEE Spectrum):

At TSMC’s North American Technology Symposium on Wednesday, the company detailed both its semiconductor technology and chip-packaging technology road maps. While the former is key to keeping the traditional part of Moore’s Law going, the latter could accelerate a trend toward processors made from more and more silicon, leading quickly to systems the size of a full silicon wafer. Such a system, Tesla’s next generation Dojo training tile is already in production, TSMC says. And in 2027 the foundry plans to offer technology for more complex wafer-scale systems than Tesla’s that could deliver 40 times as much computing power as today’s systems.

This new tile is likely going to be used for Tesla’s new planned $500 million Dojo cluster in New York.

Sperately, Tesla is building a new 100 MW data center to train its self-driving AI at Gigafactory Texas, but we were told that this system is going to use NVIDIA hardware.

Tesla’s Dojo program hasn’t been all smooth sailing. In December, we reported that two of the top executive engineers behind the program left the company.

Summer is coming in hot, and the impending heat is set to once again break the prior year’s record-breaking temperatures. For gas motorcycle riders, a scorching hot planet isn’t the only immediate source of discomfort outside. The benefit of riding electric is two-fold…

The cold hard truth: electric motorbikes are the future

First, and I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but electric motorcycles are clearly the future.

Electric motorcycles produce zero direct emissions. This is especially helpful for mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in urban areas that already struggle with air quality.

Electric engines are inherently more energy-efficient than internal combustion engines, and fewer moving parts and no regular oil changes means less time and money on maintenance.

And demand for sustainable transportation solutions should only increase with each generation. That’s why major manufacturers will continue to make long-term investments in electric vehicle technology.

Riding electric, if possible, is voting with your wallet in support of these facts.

Everyone knows gas bikes are space heaters on wheels

Need a more direct reason to ride electric? Gas bikes are scorching hot space heaters on two wheels in the summer.

What’s worse than 90-degree and 100-degree temperatures in the summer? Wrapping your legs around an internal combustion engine. This is especially true of all gas bikes when sitting in traffic.

Air cooled engines rely on wind flow from riding to manage operating temperatures. Liquid cooled engines have an advantage in traffic, but there’s just no fighting the heat from an internal combustion engine that you sit on.

It’s just a fact that gas bikes are uncomfortable to ride in traffic during the summer. Sitting at a single red light for more than a few seconds will make you immediately fall out of love with your gas bike.

Like to ride two-up? Hovering over exhaust pipes while stationary is no better for your passenger than being blasted by engine heat.

My love for riding extends to all motorbikes, and electric motorcycle technology has plenty of room for improvement in the years to come.

However, there’s no question that electric motorcycles are already tailor-made for urban riders today.

Whether you’re shopping for your first motorcycle or considering upgrading to a new motorbike, don’t make a purchase without considering Harley-Davidson’s LiveWire or competitors such as Zero, Energica, and Lightning.

Electric motorbikes look cool, run cool, and make you feel cool as hell whether you’re cruising open roads or just stuck in traffic. See a gas bike rider stuck in traffic in the summer? They’re basically the This Is Fine Dog meme. ICE bikes just can’t compete in the heat.

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – On a rooftop overlooking Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., Julian Torres stands next to row after row of solar panels his company, Scale Microgrids, helped install as part of a larger system of renewable energy that has saved the college about $1 million per year in utility costs.

Torres, the company’s chief investment officer, is among many people and institutions worried that such projects will be nearly impossible in the coming years due to a planned change in banking regulations.

The plan, part of an international agreement widely known as “Basel III endgame,” is meant to prevent a global financial crisis by increasing the amount of capital that banks must hold for certain investments to cushion them against potential losses.

Torres said the proposed rule “potentially makes projects unfinanceable with the implied costs” and that he’s already heard from bankers who have said they won’t be able to continue funding renewable energy projects like the ones Scale Microgrids designed and installed at Gallaudet.

Major banks, renewable energy companies, environmental groups and more than 100 lawmakers have also expressed concerns about the proposed framework for the change being prepared by the Federal Reserve, the FDIC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Banks help fund the vast majority of renewable energy projects through tax equity investments, which allow the banks to benefit from federal tax credits for renewable energy. Currently, renewable energy draws $18 billion to $20 billion annually through tax equity investments, according to the American Council on Renewable Energy. Spurred by tax credit demand, that market is expected to more than double to $50 billion within the next few years.

However, the amount of capital that banks would need to fund renewable energy projects through tax equity investments would quadruple under the proposed framework.

That could result in annual tax equity investments in the renewable energy sector declining as much as 90%, according to policy analysis firm Capstone.

“Many people joke that we’re on the ‘solar-coaster,'” Torres said about the ups and downs of renewable energy. “But this is probably the biggest challenge we face right now.”

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told lawmakers that “broad and material changes” are needed to the proposed framework and that he was “aware of the commentary” around the impact to green energy.

The higher capital requirements for renewable energy projects in Basel III puts the regulation on a collision course with the Biden administration’s push for cleaner and greener energy sources. Biden championed a 2022 law that included an expansion of tax credits for clean energy.

Dominic Lacy, Gallaudet’s chief operating officer, said the university needed to replace its aging infrastructure and decided to switch to more renewable energy sources. The final system includes Tesla batteries, solar panels and engines that can run on renewable natural gas if that becomes a viable option in the future.

“If we didn’t have access to that tax credit, we would have had to figure out a different way to replace the infrastructure; it would have been incredibly difficult,” he said. “Quite frankly, I don’t know that we would have been able to replace our energy at the scale at which we did.”

The financial regulators overseeing the framework received more than 200 comments on the 1,087-page proposal.

In a joint letter, the American Bankers Association, which represents the largest banks, and the Bank Policy Institute warned that renewable energy projects would be “uneconomic” under the proposed rule’s new capital requirements.

The Clean Energy State Alliance, a bipartisan coalition of state energy agencies, also wrote to the regulators with concerns about a higher capital requirement, saying they saw little reason those investments would need to be weighed as riskier than they currently are.  

“The clean energy industry’s experience with tax equity investments does not warrant such a radical change,” the group’s letter read. “We urge you to consider the impacts of such a rule on state and national climate goals as well as the economic impacts of slowing down the clean energy transition.”

Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., led 106 Democrats in a letter asking the agencies to “reconsider this change in the proposed rule and consider alternatives that accurately reflect the risk profiles of tax equity investments.”

The financial regulators are expected to take comments into consideration and release a final framework later this year.