Samsung to Make Tesla's Advanced AI Chips in Texas
By Tom Kagy | 28 Jul, 2025

Samsung's next-gen 2-nanometer chip plant in Texas will be used to make advanced AI chips for Tesla's self-driving feature in a deal valued at $16.5 billion.

“Samsung’s giant new Texas fab will be dedicated to making Tesla’s next-generation AI6 chip,” Elon Musk announced on an X post Sunday.  “The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate.”
The value of the deal to Samsung was stated as $16.5 billion in Samsung's regulatory filing following Musk’s announcement.  The filing only identified the counterparty as a “large global company", according to an article on Forbes' Monday edition.
Samsung is expected to open the Taylor, Texas plant in 2026.  The contract calls for Tesla AI6 chip deliveries to continue through the end of 2033.  
In a later X post Musk said Samsung would “allow Tesla to assist in maximizing manufacturing efficiency."  It wasn't clear from the post whether Tesla would play a role in plant operations.  However, his post suggests he may pay frequent visits to Samsung's chip fabrication plant as it “is conveniently located not far from my house.”  Musk's post claims he would walk the production line “personally to accelerate the pace of progress.”
Musk notes that Samsung is already making Tesla’s AI4 chip.  Also known as the Hardware 4 chip, it was designed by Tesla to power its EVs' Autopilot feature.  Its AI5 chip, for which design work has been completed, will be made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) which competes with Samsung to push the chipmaking technological envelope.  The Tesla AI5 chip is expected to have about 10 times the processing power of its predecessor.
Musk has been stubborn in insisting on not using lidar in Tesla's self-driving system due to its potential to add cost and has consistently argued that his chips have image processing capabilities that exceed that of rival EV makers.  Some support was gained for this boast in last week's self-driving test conducted in China in which Tesla models performed better than those of three dozen Chinese EV models, including mostly models that use lidar in addition to cameras.   Musk's argument for not using lidar like all its rivals is that humans don't have to shoot laser beams from their eyes to be able to drive.
Samsung's $37 billion total investment in its Taylor plant is due in part to installing for the first time its 2-nanometer chipmaking capability which surpasses that of virtually all chip rivals.   Yet it has had difficulty finding customers willing to take advantage of the plant's capability to make more powerful chips.   As of now Tesla's AI6 is the sole chip slated to be manufactured at the Taylor plant.