Musk wrote on his social media platform X that Samsung would produce Tesla\u2019s next-generation AI6 chip at its new manufacturing facility in Texas,<\/a> part of a $40bn investment made by the South Korean company with assistance from subsidies under former US president Joe Biden\u2019s Chips and Science Act.<\/p>\n The custom chip will be used to power Tesla\u2019s autonomous driving and humanoid robot technologies. Musk noted during a second-quarter earnings call last week that he hoped the AI6 chip could also be used in data centres to power Tesla\u2019s video-based AI model training programmes. That would allow Tesla to reduce its reliance on general-purpose graphics processing units produced by companies such as Nvidia and AMD.<\/p>\n Musk said Samsung had \u201cagreed to allow Tesla to assist in maximizing manufacturing efficiency\u201d and that he would \u201cwalk the line personally to accelerate the pace of progress\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe fab is conveniently located not far from my house,\u201d added Musk, who also said \u201cthe strategic importance of this is hard to overstate\u201d. He later posted that the $16.5bn figure was \u201cjust the bare minimum\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cActual output is likely to be several times higher,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The announcement marks a victory for Samsung as it struggles to gain foundry market share from global leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Tesla\u2019s contract chip partner for the AI5 chip, which is expected to enter mass production towards the end of this year.<\/p>\n The South Korean company this year had delayed until 2026 the start of operations in its 2-nanometre chip plant in Taylor, Texas, as it struggled to persuade large customers to switch from TSMC, which has also built manufacturing facilities in the US.<\/p>\n Macquarie analysts warned in September last year that Samsung\u2019s $17bn facility could end up as a \u201cbig stranded asset\u201d owing to a lack of big clients, while the South Korean technology group\u2019s contract chipmaking business is estimated to have suffered a Won4tn ($3bn) operating loss in the first half of this year.<\/p>\n Samsung\u2019s memory chip business has struggled in the race to produce advanced memory chips for use in AI systems.<\/p>\n The company, which will report full second-quarter earnings on Thursday, this month projected a 56 per cent drop in second-quarter operating profit compared with the same quarter last year, amid US restrictions on China and its failure to pass stringent performance tests to supply key customer Nvidia with advanced memory products.<\/p>\n Recommended<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/https:\/\/www.ft.com\/__origami\/service\/image\/v2\/images\/raw\/https%3A%2F%2Fd1e00ek4ebabms.cloudfront.net.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n