Elon Musk announces that Tesla and xAI will create ‘Macrohard’ for autonomous software development

Washington.- Elon Musk announced this Wednesday that the ‘Macrohard’ project, whose objective is to generate autonomous agents capable of creating complex software, has become a joint project between xAI, his artificial intelligence (AI) company, and the automaker Tesla.

Musk announced ‘Macrohard’, a pun on the name Microsoft, in August 2025, as an xAI project to develop AI agents, or digital workers, that would produce software.

But after months of difficulties in getting the project off the ground, the controversial businessman confirmed this Wednesday that ‘Macrohard’, also known as ‘Digital Optimus’, ‘is a joint xAI-Tesla project’, a product of the investment agreement that the car manufacturer signed in January with the AI company and which is valued at 2 billion dollars.

The name ‘Digital Optimus’ is derived from the humanoid robot Optimus that Tesla is developing and that Musk claims will be the most valuable product in the history of humanity.

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How will Macrohard work?

Musk explained in a social media message that Grok, the ‘chatbot’ of xAI, will act as ‘director’ of ‘Digital Optimus’.

“It can be understood as if Digital Optimus’ AI were System 1 (the instinctive part of the mind) and Grok were System 2 (the reflective or thinking part of the mind),” he said.

Musk also explained that Digital Optimus will be run with Tesla AI4 chips, which cost $650 and which the entrepreneur described as “super low cost”, in conjunction with Tesla hardware.

“It will be the only real-time AI system. This is very important. In principle, it is capable of emulating the operation of entire companies. That’s why the program is called MACROHARD, a fun reference to Microsoft,” he concluded.

The announcement comes after specialized media have pointed out that the Macrohard or Digital Optimus project has suffered serious setbacks since its launch, with prominent employees in charge of its execution leaving the company.

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The most relevant case would be that of Toby Pohlen, the co-founder of xAI, whom Musk appointed in early February to take the idea off the ground but who left the position just two weeks after his appointment.