Musk confirms Tesla AI5 and AI6 will be made at both Samsung and TSMC, reinforcing dual-foundry strategy

Elon Musk has confirmed that Tesla’s AI6 chip will be manufactured at both Samsung’s Taylor facility and TSMC’s Arizona fab. The update from the company’s CEO follows earlier comments in which he described Samsung’s site as technically superior — remarks that had suggested a one-fab strategy for Tesla’s most advanced silicon. That’s no longer the case.

According to Musk, both AI5 and AI6 are being built by Samsung and TSMC, with each foundry producing slightly different physical versions of the same design. “Our software works identically [on both chips],” he wrote, adding that the differences are a result of how each supplier translates designs to physical form.

Samsung has ‘slightly more advanced equipment’

In October, Musk said, rather plainly, that "Technically, the Samsung fab [in Texas] has slightly more advanced equipment than the TSMC fab [in Arizona],” referring to Samsung’s Taylor site and TSMC’s Fab 21 in Phoenix. According to Musk, Samsung’s tooling was slightly more advanced, which led him to suggest that AI5 would be produced there exclusively.

Naturally, that was never the full picture. Tesla had already lined up both Samsung and TSMC to manufacture AI5, and Musk’s own words now confirm it. While Samsung’s Taylor site is newer, TSMC brings proven process maturity and high-volume reliability. Tesla is using both. “Slightly different versions of the Tesla AI5 chip will be made at TSMC and Samsung simply because they translate designs to physical form differently, but the goal is that our AI software works identically.” Musk posted to X on November 4.

He also confirmed that Tesla’s AI6 chip will follow the same path, adding that it’ll “use the same fabs, but achieve roughly 2X performance.” This puts to rest earlier concerns that AI6 would require a different foundry altogether due to its more aggressive performance targets. Musk’s plan now is to stick with the same two suppliers and to maintain compatibility across both versions before moving to different fabs with the AI7.

Musk hasn’t detailed how the Samsung and TSMC variants differ at the hardware level, and the company is unlikely to highlight discrepancies unless they become relevant to functionality or deployment. In design terms, it seems like the chips will be tuned to abstract away fab-specific characteristics, enabling a consistent runtime environment for inference.

This isn’t unusual at the scale Tesla is targeting. Dual-sourcing is, after all, a standard practice among companies that need volume guarantees. What was unusual was Musk’s framing, which portrayed Samsung as having a clear lead and TSMC as the fallback. With the confirmation that both fabs are producing Tesla’s silicon, and that both will continue to do so for future generations, that’s clearly not the case.

Aggressive cadence, sparse detail

Aside from the more recent foundry confirmation, Musk also provided new performance figures. He claims that AI5 will be 40 times more performant than AI4. “Not 40 percent, 40 times,” he said during Tesla’s Q3 earnings call in October, offering no further explanation. The figure has not been tied to any specific metric. It could refer to throughput, latency, energy efficiency, model execution rate, or some weighted blend of those factors.

Tesla’s current silicon, often referred to as AI4 or Hardware 4 (HW4), already brought notable improvements to the FSD stack, including upgraded image signal processing and higher camera bandwidth. A 40 times gain over that platform (AI5), let alone another 40 times gain (AI6), would imply either a major architectural redesign or a substantial jump in how the chip interacts with Tesla’s AI workloads. But without specifications, it’s impossible to verify.

Musk says AI5 is still in development and has not yet taped out, and the chip is scheduled to enter production in 2026. AI6, which he describes as a “fast follow,” is set to arrive about a year later. The target is to double AI5’s performance using the same fabs.

Musk’s timeline would put AI6 in production sometime in 2027 or early 2028. He has not said whether it will be on a new node or what architectural changes are expected. But the commitment to a 2x gain over AI5, which itself is supposed to be 40x better than AI4, suggests that Tesla is aiming to push performance per watt and per dollar significantly higher in each cycle.

Demand setting the pace?

Tesla’s decision to split manufacturing between Samsung and TSMC reflects the scale of its ambitions more than any individual supplier’s advantage. AI5 and AI6 are expected to power FSD, Tesla’s humanoid robot platform, and potentially other unannounced systems.

That level of deployment requires guaranteed availability, and no single U.S. fab is likely to offer enough volume without risk. In practice, Tesla needs both fabs fully engaged just to hit expected production volumes. With AI5 not yet in tapeout and AI6 already planned, there’s little margin for delay.

This dual-source approach also gives Tesla flexibility. If one fab encounters yield issues, capacity limits, or node-specific challenges, the other can pick up the slack. It also gives the company better leverage in negotiating wafer supply and pricing, particularly as both fabs compete for high-value AI contracts.

Musk has suggested that AI7 is already in early development. He called it “more adventurous” and hinted that it might need a different fab arrangement. Whether that means moving to a more advanced node, adopting new packaging techniques, or changing foundry partners isn’t yet known.

For now, Tesla appears to be sticking to a system of iterating quickly, building for scale, and abstracting away from manufacturing differences that don’t affect performance. If the chips behave identically, Tesla doesn’t care where they come from. Ultimately, the company will use whatever capacity is available to ensure that chips keep rolling off the line.

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