[News] Tesla Reportedly Advances In-House Chip Plans as Musk Hails AI5 Design Review

According to STAR Market Daily, citing Times of India and Telarati, Tesla previously disclosed it was internally evaluating the AI5 chips, and Elon Musk has now said the effort has achieved promising results.

As the report notes, Musk wrote on X that he had just completed a strong design review with Tesla’s AI5 chip team, calling the chip an “epic” product and adding that the follow-up AI6 could become the most advanced AI chip to date. As the report indicates, Musk also believes the AI5 could be the best inference chip for models with fewer than 250 billion parameters, while the AI6 will go even further.

The report adds that Tesla’s AI5 and AI6 chips, now under intensive development, are expected to support the company’s AI and autonomous driving training. The AI5 is reportedly a transitional or scenario-specific main chip, manufactured by TSMC, and is expected to enter mass production by the end of 2026, as the report indicates.

Meanwhile, the AI6 is regarded as the core of Tesla’s future AI ecosystem, expected to be deployed first in the company’s Cybercab robotaxi and Optimus humanoid robot, and later potentially expanded to AI data centers. According to the report, initial AI6 samples are set to be produced at Samsung Electronics’ foundry and packaging facilities in South Korea, with mass production to follow at Samsung’s Taylor plant in Texas.

As Benzinga notes, Tesla is following a path similar to other major tech players seeking to reduce their reliance on outside suppliers like NVIDIA for AI chips. Previously, Tesla’s chip strategy saw significant changes. The report indicates that in August, Tesla suspended its Dojo chip design project. Musk’s latest comments again emphasized that the company has shifted from pursuing two chip architectures to focusing on a single one, as STAR Market Daily indicates.

Read more

• [News] Samsung Reportedly Restarts Taylor Equipment Orders, Appoints New Head to Lead Operations
• [News] Musk Halted Dojo Project, Hint at Abandoning In-House Chip Strategy

(Photo credit: Tesla)