Elon and chips go way back.
From Teslarati, November 5:
Elon Musk revealed new information on Tesla’s AI5, previously known as Hardware 5, chip, for self-driving, which will be manufactured by both Samsung and TSMC.
The AI5 chip is Tesla’s next-generation hardware chip for its self-driving program, Optimus humanoid robots, and other AI-driven features in both vehicles and other applications. It will be the successor to the current AI4, previously known as Hardware 4, which is currently utilized in Tesla’s newest vehicles.
AI5 is specially optimized for Tesla use, as it will work alongside the company’s Neural Networks to focus on real-time inference to make safe and logical decisions during operation. It was first teased by Tesla in mid-2024 as Musk called it “an amazing design” and “an immense jump” from the current AI4 chip.
It will be roughly 4o times faster, have 8 times the raw compute, 9 times the memory capacity, 5 times the memory bandwidth, and 3 times the efficiency per watt.
It will be manufactured by both TSMC and Samsung at their Arizona and Texas fab locations, respectively.
Here’s what Musk revealed about the chip yesterday:
Different Versions
Samsung and TSMC will make slightly different versions of the AI5 chip, “simply because they translate designs to physical form differently.” However, Musk said the goal is that its AI software would work identically.This was a real concern for some who are familiar with chip manufacturing, as Apple’s A9 “Chipgate” saga seemed to be echoing through Tesla.
Back in 2015, it was found that Apple’s A9 chips had different performances based on who manufactured them. TSMC and Samsung were both building the chips, but it was found that Samsung’s chips had shorter battery life than TSMC-fabricated versions....
....MUCH MORE
Related, from CNBC November 6 (after the annual meeting):
Elon Musk says Tesla needs to build ‘gigantic chip fab’ to meet AI and robotics needs
- Musk said Tesla would probably need to build a “gigantic” chip fab in order to meet the volume of chips that the company is looking for.
- Tesla depends on TSMC and Samsung, but still faces shortages despite expanding supplier output.
- Tesla’s growing chip needs come as it leans into AI and robotics — industries Musk sees as the future of the global economy....
....MUCH MORE
Speaking of the shareholders meeting (replay):
Here is the link to Tesla's 2025 Annual Shareholder Meeting:https://t.co/29dN4gkMWY
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) November 6, 2025
Regarding Mr. Musk and chips, some previous posts (there are hundreds):
Nvidia Wants to Be the Brains Of Your Autonomous Car (NVDA)
NVIDIA Partner Tesla Reportedly Developing Chip With AMD (TSLA; NVDA; AMD)
The only reason for Tesla to do this is that NVIDIA's chips are general purpose whereas specialized chips are making inroads in stuff like crypto mining (ASICs), Google's Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) for machine learning and Facebook's hardware efforts.
"Nvidia CEO is 'more than happy to help' if Tesla's A.I. chip doesn't pan out" (NVDA; TSLA)
Elon Got Himself A Supercomputer: "Tesla's $300 Million AI Cluster Is Going Live Today" (TSLA)
And one of my favorite vignettes:
From October 5, 2024's "AI versus the climate as data center emissions soar":
...The AI business has a lot of money, OpenAI just raised $6 billion at a $157 billion valuation, or my favorite recent example, the three centi-billionaires Jensen Huang (NVDA), Elon Musk (TSLA+++) and Larry Ellison (ORCL) having dinner at Nobu, Palo Alto, combined net worth at the table $550 billion, with Musk and Ellison begging Huang to get them more chips:
“Please take our money. By the way, I got dinner. No, no, take more of it.
We need you to take more of our money please.”
—Ellison on the table-talk
Earlier:
January 2021 - "Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison scores $12 billion gain on his Tesla stock in under 3 years" (ORCL; TSLA)
Earlier still:
December 2018 - Oracle's Larry Ellison To Join Tesla's Board (TSLA)
