The design of Tesla's next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chip, "AI5," is reportedly entering its final stage.
On the 18th (local time), Elon Musk, Tesla chief executive officer (CEO), said on his social network service (SNS) X (formerly Twitter), "The AI5 chip design is almost complete," and noted, "The AI6 chip (design) has also entered the early stage." He added, "AI7, AI8, AI9 and other chips will follow," and "We are aiming for a nine-month design cycle."
It is interpreted as a plan to drastically shorten, starting with AI5, the development and mass-production cycle of AI3 and AI4, which had taken about three years. Musk predicted of the company's AI chips, "I can say for certain they will record the world's highest production volume."
With Tesla completing the AI5 chip design, Samsung Electronics' foundry (contract chip manufacturing) mass production is also expected to gain momentum. Tesla signed a semiconductor supply contract worth about 23 trillion won with Samsung Electronics in July last year.
Samsung Electronics is known to produce Tesla's chips through 2–3-nanometer (nm; one-billionth of a meter) class processes at the Taylor plant in Texas, scheduled to begin operations this year. Some AI5 volumes and AI6 are analyzed to become the plant's main production items. At an earnings call in Oct. last year, Musk said, "Both Samsung Electronics and TSMC will work on AI5," making Samsung Electronics' participation in AI5 production official.
Tesla's AI-series chips are high-performance chips that power Autonomous Driving vehicles, robots, and AI models.