Elon Musk, Tesla chief executive officer (CEO), said the company has completed the design of its next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chip "AI5." He also expressed thanks to Samsung Electronics and TSMC, which are in charge of producing AI5.
Musk said on the 15th on his X (formerly Twitter) account, "Congratulations to the Tesla AI chip design team for taping out (design completion) AI5." Tape-out means the semiconductor design has been finalized and handed over to a foundry (contract semiconductor manufacturing) for production.
AI5 is an in-house compute chip that will serve as the core brain for Tesla's Humanoid Robot and Autonomous Driving vehicles. Musk said to Samsung Electronics and TSMC, which produce the AI5 chip, "Thank you for supporting production," adding, "AI5 will be one of the most-produced AI chips in history." He added, "Interesting chips like AI6 and Dojo 3 are also under development."
The prototype was produced at Samsung Electronics' domestic foundry plant. The "KR2613" engraving in the chip photo Musk released that day indicates the chip was manufactured at Samsung Electronics' Korea plant in the 13th week of 2026.
AI5 is expected to enter full-scale mass production starting in 2027 at Samsung Electronics' Taylor plant in Texas, United States, and at TSMC's fab in Taiwan and its plant in Arizona, United States. AI5 will be produced by TSMC and Samsung Electronics, while AI6 will be produced entirely by Samsung Electronics.
Earlier, in July last year, Tesla signed a $16.5 billion (about 22 trillion won) contract with Samsung Electronics to produce AI6 chips. Musk had earlier noted that AI6 could be taped out as early as December this year.