March 11 (Reuters) – Elon Musk on Wednesday unveiled a joint project between Tesla (TSLA) and his artificial intelligence startup xAI that he called “Macrohard” or “Digital Optimus” and said it was a system capable of simulating the functions of a software company.
Musk said in a post on his social media platform
The launch of Anthropic’s (ANTH.PVT) Claude Cowork, which can perform a range of computer-based tasks autonomously, has spooked software investors who fear agent AI will disrupt established business models.
Musk’s xAI previously built Macrohard as an AI project that would allow developers to emulate the creation of software from companies like Microsoft.
“In principle, it’s capable of simulating the functionality of an entire company. That’s why the program is called MACROHARD, which is an interesting reference to Microsoft,” Musk said on Wednesday.
Musk said the system will run on Tesla’s in-house AI4 chip and be paired with xAI’s Nvidia-based server hardware, calling the combination cost-competitive.
Previously, Tesla signed an agreement in January to invest approximately US$2 billion to acquire shares in xAI.
SpaceX acquired xAI last month in an all-stock deal that valued the rocket maker at $1 trillion and xAI at $250 billion, ahead of what could be a massive initial public offering later this year, with Musk citing orbital data centers as the main reason for the merger.
Records from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office show that xAI filed a trademark application for “Macrohard” in August 2025.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)
