Tesla is moving closer to completing the design of its next-generation AI5 chip and has already begun development work on its AI6 processor, CEO Elon Musk said Sunday in a post on X.
The update marks the company’s most detailed assessment yet of its long-term chip roadmap as it leans deeper into artificial intelligence and robotics.
Most people don’t know that Tesla has had an advanced AI chip and board engineering team for many years. That team has already designed and deployed several million AI chips in our cars and data centers. These chips are what enable Tesla to be the leader in real-world AI. The
In the post, Musk laid out Tesla’s goal of developing and moving a new AI chip design into volume production every 12 months, positioning the company to iterate its hardware far faster than traditional semiconductor cycles.
“The current version in cars is AI4, we are close to taping out AI5 and are starting work on AI6,” he said.
Musk added that he expects Tesla to manufacture chips “at higher volumes ultimately than all other AI chips combined,” emphasising, “I’m not kidding.”
Musk highlights Tesla’s internal chip efforts
Musk expanded on those ambitions in the full text of his post, noting that Tesla has “had an advanced AI chip and board engineering team for many years,” responsible for designing and deploying “several million AI chips” across its vehicles and data centres.
He said those chips underpin Tesla’s lead in real-world AI and will “profoundly change the world in positive ways,” citing safer autonomous driving and medical applications through Optimus, the company’s humanoid robot project.
Musk also used the post to solicit engineering talent, asking candidates to send evidence of exceptional ability to a dedicated email address.
He said Tesla is particularly interested in applying advanced AI techniques to chip design.
Samsung announced in July that it had secured a $16.5 billion agreement to produce AI semiconductors for Tesla, including work at a new Texas facility that Musk said would be dedicated to the AI6 chip.
Tesla’s latest “AI5” chip, also outsourced to contract manufacturers, is designed to be more cost-effective, power-efficient, and optimised for the company’s AI systems.
Tesla weighs building its own semiconductor fab
Musk said earlier this month that Tesla may need to build its own semiconductor fabrication plant to meet future demand for AI and robotics.
Speaking at the company’s annual shareholders meeting, he said Tesla will likely require a “gigantic” fabrication facility, describing the concept as a “Tesla terra fab.”
“One of the things I’m trying to figure out is — how do we make enough chips?” he said.
Tesla currently relies on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung Electronics to produce its chip designs and is considering a potential partnership with Intel.
“But even when we extrapolate the best-case scenario for chip production from our suppliers, it’s still not enough,” he said.
Musk said Tesla’s hypothetical fab would start at a capacity of 100,000 wafer starts per month and eventually scale to 1 million.
By comparison, TSMC reported annual production capacity of 17 million wafers in 2024, or roughly 1.42 million wafer starts per month.
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