Tesla and Samsung Have $16.5 Billion AI Chip Deal

Tesla will make an AI6 chip that will be the chip for vehicles, robots, and data centers and it will unify and build on the Dojo’s chip design. Samsung’s Texas fab will produce the chips as part of a $16.5 billion deal. This could be at least 16 million chips and maybe over 32 million. Elon Musk has said the deal size will end up being much more than $16.5 billion. The contract covers 2025-2033. The AI6 will use a 2 nanometer chip process.

Tesla’s AI6 will be used in cars and Optimus.

Samsung agreed to allow Tesla to assist in maximizing manufacturing efficiency.

This is a critical point, as I will walk the line personally to accelerate the pace of progress. And the fab is conveniently located not far from Elon Musk’s house.

Samsung agreed to allow Tesla to assist in maximizing manufacturing efficiency.

This is a critical point, as I will walk the line personally to accelerate the pace of progress. And the fab is conveniently located not far from my house 😃

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 28, 2025

The Tesla AI5 (formerly HW5) is the next-generation AI inference computer for Tesla vehicles, succeeding the AI4. It’s designed to handle FSD tasks with significantly higher performance, compressing real-world video data into driving commands efficiently. Tesla emphasizes its power efficiency (running at ~300 watts) and ability to operate at int8 precision for inference.

It has ~10X the computational capability of AI4 (AI4 is about 250-300 TOPS. AI5 could reach 2,500-3,000 TOPS. It is manufactured by TSMC using N3 (3nm) silicon process. AI5 design was completed in July 2025, with production starting initially in Taiwan before shifting to Arizona. High-volume production is anticipated in 2026.

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