A Signal for the Revival of Samsung Foundry?
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, announced that the design of Tesla's next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chip, the 'AI5', is in its final stages.
On January 18 (local time), CEO Musk posted on the social networking service X (formerly Twitter), "The AI5 chip design is almost complete," adding, "The AI6 chip design has also entered its initial stage." He also stated, "AI7, AI8, AI9, and other chips will follow," and that the company is targeting a nine-month design cycle. This reflects Tesla's intention to drastically shorten the development and mass production cycle for AI chips, which previously took about three years for the AI3 and AI4, starting with the AI5.
Tesla's AI series chips are high-performance chips that power autonomous vehicles, robots, and AI models. CEO Musk asserted that Tesla's AI chips "will undoubtedly achieve the highest production volume in the world."
The completion of the AI5 chip design by Tesla could signal an improvement in foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) performance for Samsung Electronics. In July of last year, Tesla signed a semiconductor supply contract worth approximately 23 trillion won with Samsung Electronics. Samsung Electronics is expected to produce Tesla chips using advanced 2-3nm (1nm = one billionth of a meter) process technology at its Taylor, Texas plant, which is scheduled to begin operations this year. It is highly likely that some AI5 chips and the AI6 will become the main production items at the Taylor plant.
During Tesla's earnings announcement in October last year, CEO Musk officially confirmed Samsung Electronics' participation in AI5 production, stating, "Both Samsung Electronics and TSMC will work on the AI5." Initially, the industry predicted that AI5 production would be allocated to TSMC, but with CEO Musk committing to the world's largest production volume and a nine-month design cycle, it is expected that the volume Samsung Electronics will need to handle will also increase.
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