Musk confirms Samsung, TSMC to produce future AI6 chips

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Musk confirms Samsung, TSMC to produce future AI6 chips

Published: 16 Apr. 2026, 19:17

LEE JAE-LIM
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Tesla's AI5 chip prototype that CEO Elon Musk uploaded on X [X]

Tesla’s AI chip road map became clearer after CEO Elon Musk confirmed on Thursday that the company would use both Samsung Electronics and TSMC to manufacture its next-next-generation AI6 chips, employing a dual-track strategy similar to the one Tesla used for the next-generation AI5 chip.

Musk made the comments as the automaker pushes to scale chip production to support its expanded lineup of autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots.

He wrote that the AI6 would “deliver a true doubling of performance over AI5 in the same half reticle size using the Samsung 2nm fab in Texas,” adding that the “AI6.5 will further improve performance using TSMC 2nm in Arizona.”

Samsung is building a chip foundry in Taylor, Texas, while TSMC is building a similar plant in Phoenix, Arizona.

Musk's remarks followed his announcement that the next-generation AI5 chip model has completed tape-out, meaning the design work has been finalized and is ready to move into production.

Tesla's current AI4 chip generation powers the company's full self-driving systems. The next-generation AI5 chips are to be produced by Samsung and TSMC, with Musk earlier indicating they would enter mass production by mid-2027, ultimately powering autonomous vehicles and Optimus humanoids.

After Samsung reported a $16.5 billion chip manufacturing deal with Tesla in July 2025, and following Musk’s public claims that Samsung’s Taylor site would be technically superior to TSMC’s, many observers assumed Samsung would become the sole manufacturer of the AI6.

Strained capacity at TSMC, given that its major customers include Nvidia and Apple, lent strength to the assumption.

However, Musk later shifted the messaging in October, saying on X that Tesla would maintain a dual-sourcing strategy for upcoming chips.

TSMC remains the dominant foundry leader, with roughly 70.4 percent of the foundry market share according to TrendForce’s fourth-quarter 2025 data, while Samsung holds about 6.8 percent. Even with Samsung’s progress, TSMC’s scale and supply chain depth make it difficult to ignore in leading-edge production.

Musk also expressed high hopes for the AI5 chip's production volume, boasting that the AI5 “will be one of the most produced AI chips ever.”

He also shared an image of a prototype chip, which is believed to have been made at Samsung’s Pyeongtaek operations in Gyeonggi around late March. The inference is based on the label “KR2613” etched on the bottom right of the packaging, indicating that the prototype was made in Korea during week 13 of 2026.

Musk further reinforced the importance of both foundries by directly thanking Samsung and TSMC for their support of the AI5.

Looking further ahead, Musk is also pursuing vertical integration through Terafab, a planned $20 billion chip megafactory in Austin, Texas, envisioned as a joint venture involving Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI.

As part of that effort, Bloomberg reported on Thursday that Musk’s sources have been reaching out to major chipmaking equipment suppliers — including Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron, Lam Research, and Samsung — related to Terafab. The Terafab team asked Samsung for support, but the Korean company instead responded with an alternate proposal to allocate more of Tesla's chip capacity at its Taylor site.

BY LEE JAE-LIM [[email protected]]