designed some of AMD’s most commercially successful processors, before a stint at Apple, where he helped it gain hardware self-reliance with the company’s Ax series SoCs; and returning to AMD, and leading the team that designed the company’s upcoming “Zen” and K-12 micro-architectures. Tesla cars are currently driven by electronics powered by NVIDIA Tegra SoCs. With NVIDIA’s immeasurable investments in deep-learning tech that forms the foundation of self-driving car hardware, and Tesla Motors yet choosing a CPU designer to lead its autopilot division, it’s easy to speculate that Musk’s company is seeking the same kind of hardware self-reliance that Apple did, as its iOS devices were taking off.