Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced the completion of the design for the next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor 'AI5' and personally expressed gratitude to key partners Samsung Electronics and TSMC. As the disclosed chip was confirmed to have been produced at Samsung Electronics' domestic foundry plant in Korea, assessments have emerged that the influence of Korean semiconductors in Tesla's next-generation chip ecosystem has been reaffirmed.
CEO Musk revealed the 'tape-out' news for the AI5 chip through his X (formerly Twitter) account on the 15th (local time). Tape-out signifies that semiconductor design has been finalized and the design blueprints have been handed over to the foundry for the manufacturing process. Musk expressed confidence, saying "Congratulations to the team on finishing the AI5 chip design" and "This chip will become one of the most mass-produced AI chips in history."
According to industry sources, AI5 is known to be mass-produced at TSMC's Taiwan fab and Arizona fab, as well as Samsung Electronics' Taylor, Texas fab. The actual large-scale mass production timing is projected for 2027, one year after design completion. Musk mentioned both AI5 and AI6 that day, with these chips going into Tesla's autonomous vehicles and humanoid robots. AI5 will be produced by TSMC and Samsung Electronics, while AI6 will be produced entirely by Samsung Electronics. Musk previously stated that the tape-out for AI6 could also be possible as early as December of this year.
Particularly, industry attention focused on the inscription 'KR2613' engraved on the chip photo that Musk revealed. This inscription indicates it was manufactured at Samsung Electronics' foundry plant in Korea during the 13th week of 2026. This suggests that Samsung Electronics' domestic production line played a core role in the prototype production process for Tesla's cutting-edge AI chips.
Cooperative relationships among domestic semiconductor companies within the supply chain (SCM) were also prominent. The prototype revealed in the photos this time was equipped with SK hynix memory products. Samsung Electronics memory is also understood to be included in the overall AI5 supply chain. The technological capabilities of both Samsung and SK played roles across high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and other components that determine the performance of Tesla's AI chips.
Samsung Electronics' cutting-edge foundry process 'SF2T' was applied to this AI5 chip. Samsung Electronics announced at the foundry forum 'SAFE 2025' held in Seoul last year that it was showcasing its third-generation 2-nanometer (nm, one-billionth of a meter) process 'SF2P+' and developing the custom process 'SF2T' targeting Tesla's subsequent AI6 chip and others.
Analysis suggests that as the SF2T process, originally known to be for next-generation models, was preemptively applied starting from AI5, the foundry alliance between the two companies has been further solidified.
Meanwhile, during this announcement process, an incident occurred where Musk tagged the wrong account while mentioning TSMC. Musk expressed gratitude while designating TSMC alongside Samsung Electronics (@Samsung), but cited the account of a Taiwanese semiconductor company 'TSC' with a similar name rather than TSMC's actual official account. This appears to be a simple mistake caused by TSMC not operating a separate official X account.
With this AI5 design completion declaration, Tesla's independent AI semiconductor roadmap is expected to gain further momentum. Musk indicated that in addition to AI5, successor lineups including the next-generation supercomputer chip Dojo3 and AI6 are already under development, signaling moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia.
