Elon Musk, Tesla's chief executive officer, said the final design of the artificial intelligence (AI) chip to be produced through Samsung Electronics' foundry (contract chip manufacturing) process is expected to be completed within the year.
On the 19th (local time), CEO Musk said on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), "With a bit of luck and speed from using AI, we might be able to tape out AI6 in December." Tape-out refers to finishing the design and handing it over to the foundry. It is the first step in prototype production.
Samsung Electronics plans to produce the Tesla chip in the second half of next year based on a 2-nanometer (nm; one-billionth of a meter) process. The two companies signed a foundry supply contract worth $16.5 billion (about 25 trillion won) last year and agreed to produce the next-generation AI chip, AI6, at the Taylor plant in Texas. The chip is expected to be used in Tesla's Full Self-Driving (FSD) cars and Humanoid Robot.