Another Top Tesla Chip Engineer Departs for AI Startup DensityAI

Tesla’s in-house AI hardware team has suffered another high-profile departure. Shishuang Sun, a senior director of AI hardware design, has left the company after more than five years to join DensityAI, the AI hardware startup founded by former members of Tesla’s Dojo supercomputer project.

Sun was a key figure in Tesla’s efforts to develop custom silicon, working on both the Dojo training system and the Autopilot computers. At DensityAI, he will focus on packaging and system hardware, a role he began in July.

This latest exit underscores a growing trend of talent moving from Tesla’s custom chip initiatives to specialized startups. DensityAI, which has attracted several former Dojo engineers, is rapidly building a team with deep expertise in AI hardware development. The loss of such a senior engineer could complicate Tesla’s ambitious plans to rely on its own silicon for autonomous driving and AI training workloads.