By Naveen Athrappully
Tesla’s next-gen chips will be manufactured at Samsung’s upcoming semiconductor facility in Texas, the automotive company’s CEO, Elon Musk, said in a July 28 post on X.
“Samsung’s giant new Texas fab will be dedicated to making Tesla’s next-generation AI6 chip. The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate,” Musk said.
“Samsung currently makes AI4. TSMC will make AI5, which just finished design, initially in Taiwan and then Arizona.”
The AI4 chips currently power Tesla’s Full Self-Driving driver assistant system.
“Samsung agreed to allow Tesla to assist in maximizing manufacturing efficiency. This is a critical point, as I will walk the line personally to accelerate the pace of progress. And the fab is conveniently located not far from my house,” Musk said in another X post.
A contract notice, uploaded by Samsung on its website on July 28, mentions that the company has entered into a deal worth $16.54 billion with a “large global company.” The contract period started on July 24 and ends on Dec. 31, 2033.
The name of the other party is being withheld due to business confidentiality, the notice said.
The information, together with key contract terms, will be revealed on the first business day following the withholding period, which is scheduled to end on Dec. 31, 2033, it added.
“As the key details of the contract have not been disclosed to maintain business confidentiality, investors are advised to exercise caution, considering the possibility of changes to or termination of the contract,” the company said.
In a July 28 post on X discussing the $16.5 billion Samsung–Tesla deal, Musk replied that the amount is “just the bare minimum. Actual output is likely to be several times higher.”
Tesla shares were trading 3.61 percent higher as of 12:10 p.m. ET on Monday, with Samsung shares up by 6.83 percent.
Samsung’s Taylor facility in Texas is being built at a cost of $17 billion, according to the company.
Construction activities at the site injected $8.6 billion into the local economy last year, supporting 8,868 direct construction jobs and 9,768 indirect ones, it added.
While no timeline was provided for AI6 chip production, Musk has previously said that next-generation AI5 chips will be produced at the end of 2026, suggesting AI6 would follow. Lee Dong-ju, an analyst at SK Securities, expects production of the AI6 in 2027 or 2028.
In October, Samsung postponed taking deliveries of ASML chipmaking equipment for its Texas factory, as it had not yet won any major customers for the project. It has already delayed the plant’s operational start to 2026.
According to a senior analyst at NH Investment & Securities, Ryu Young-ho, Samsung’s Taylor fab “so far had virtually no customers, so this order is quite meaningful,” although the deal may represent a small portion of its logic chip revenue annually.
In April last year, Samsung announced that it was receiving $6.4 billion in direct funding as part of the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act.
Passed in 2022, the Act allocates $53 billion in federal incentives to boost domestic semiconductor manufacturing and research.
The Act aims to ensure that 20 percent of the world’s most advanced chips are manufactured in the United States by the end of the decade. While U.S. manufacturing makes up 12 percent of the total global semiconductor supply, America lags behind when it comes to the production of highly advanced chips.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is looking at maximizing the benefits from the CHIPS and Science Act.
During a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing in June, Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick was asked whether the department was withholding dollars that had already been approved under the Act.
“Are we renegotiating? Absolutely, for the benefit of the American taxpayer, for sure,” he replied.
Lutnick highlighted that Taiwan-based TSMC, which had previously received $6.6 billion in federal funding under the Act to invest $65 billion in the United States, had revised the deal. In March, the company pledged to invest another $100 billion in the country without any additional funding from the administration.
“We’re getting more value for the same dollars,” he said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
