During Tesla 's ( TSLA -3.39%) fourth-quarter earnings call last week, Elon Musk got investors amped after the entrepreneur spoke at length about the company's AI roadmap and how it's betting big on humanoid robotics.

For years, Elon Musk has talked about Dojo — the AI supercomputer that will be the cornerstone of Tesla’s AI ambitions. It’s important enough to Musk that in July 2024, he said the company’s AI team would “ double down ” on Dojo in the lead-up to Tesla’s robotaxi reveal, which happened in October.

In many ways, these have been tough days for Tesla. Falling sales. Squeezed profit margins. Proposed changes in US government policy that could cost the company billions.