Jenith
Well-known Member
- Joined
- Mar 25, 2019
- Posts
- 53,609
- Likes
- 238
Samsung bagged a contract to manufacture Tesla’s AI5 chips a few months ago, and it appears to have taped out the first AI5 chip. Tesla CEO Elon Musk congratulated the company’s chip design division and thanked both Samsung and TSMC for the first tape-out of the silicon.
Elon Musk recently posted an image of the AI5 semiconductor chip on X. In the same thread, he thanked Samsung Foundry and TSMC for their support in accelerating chip production, though he did end up tagging Taiwan Semiconductor's X profile instead of tagging TSMC's profile.
Apparently, the AI5's tape-out was finished 45 days ahead of the original schedule. In the semiconductor manufacturing industry, tape-out refers to the final stage of the chip design process. This is when the design of the chip is completed and its final technical specifications are sent to the fabrication facility (like Samsung Foundry) to begin the manufacturing phase.
Now that the tape-out is complete, mass production of the AI5 could begin sometime in the second half of 2026. Samsung Foundry and TSMC have been tasked with manufacturing the chip using their 3nm process nodes. The AI5 will power the Full Self-Driving (FSD) features in Tesla’s vehicles, the autonomous capabilities of the upcoming Optimus humanoid robots, and the Dojo training clusters.
Musk also revealed that Tesla had to make certain design concessions for the AI5. However, those concessions will be remedied with the AI6 chip, which will feature LPDDR6X memory. The AI6 will be manufactured by Samsung Foundry on its 2nm process node in Taylor, Texas, while the AI6.5 chip will be produced by TSMC on its 2nm process in Arizona.
Samsung completes tape-out of Tesla’s AI5 chip for cars and robots
Elon Musk recently posted an image of the AI5 semiconductor chip on X. In the same thread, he thanked Samsung Foundry and TSMC for their support in accelerating chip production, though he did end up tagging Taiwan Semiconductor's X profile instead of tagging TSMC's profile.
Apparently, the AI5's tape-out was finished 45 days ahead of the original schedule. In the semiconductor manufacturing industry, tape-out refers to the final stage of the chip design process. This is when the design of the chip is completed and its final technical specifications are sent to the fabrication facility (like Samsung Foundry) to begin the manufacturing phase.
Now that the tape-out is complete, mass production of the AI5 could begin sometime in the second half of 2026. Samsung Foundry and TSMC have been tasked with manufacturing the chip using their 3nm process nodes. The AI5 will power the Full Self-Driving (FSD) features in Tesla’s vehicles, the autonomous capabilities of the upcoming Optimus humanoid robots, and the Dojo training clusters.
Musk also revealed that Tesla had to make certain design concessions for the AI5. However, those concessions will be remedied with the AI6 chip, which will feature LPDDR6X memory. The AI6 will be manufactured by Samsung Foundry on its 2nm process node in Taylor, Texas, while the AI6.5 chip will be produced by TSMC on its 2nm process in Arizona.