Tesla Shifts 2nm AI Chip Manufacturing to US: Divides AI6 and AI6.5 Production Between Samsung Texas and TSMC Arizona

Elon Musk has unveiled an ambitious roadmap for Tesla’s future AI ecosystem, highlighting the partnership with both Samsung and TSMC to produce advanced AI chips known as AI6 and AI6.5.

Tesla’s 2nm Chip Strategy: AI6 to Samsung and AI6.5 to TSMC

Recently, Tesla marked a significant milestone with the successful tape-out of its AI5 chip, manufactured by Samsung. This development is part of Tesla’s broader strategy to create custom silicon that meets the demands of its AI operations.

Musk also provided insights into Tesla’s upcoming innovations, particularly focusing on AI6 and the Dojo3 supercomputer initiative. While the company plans to shift the manufacturing of its custom AI chips to Terafab once it is operational, it will continue to collaborate closely with TSMC and other major semiconductor manufacturers.

Best was working with such a great team of AI hardware & software engineers! It was more fun than going to parties on Saturdays by far. Least awesome was that we had to make several design concessions to move fast, but were able to finish tapeout 45 days ahead of schedule. AI6…

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 15, 2026

While the completion of Terafab is still in the future, Musk confirmed that the AI6 chip will be produced at Samsung, while AI6.5 will come from TSMC. A recent post on X revealed more about the strategy behind these chips. Musk expressed relief over the completion and fabrication of the AI5 design but acknowledged that some compromises were necessary to achieve an expedited tape-out, which was completed 45 days early.

Notably, the AI6 chip is set to resolve the design issues that had previously emerged. This next-generation chip will utilize Samsung’s cutting-edge 2nm process technology and is expected to provide performance that is double that of its predecessor, AI5. Transitioning from LPDDR5X memory used in AI5, the AI6 will adopt the faster LPDDR6 memory standard to enhance efficiency.

Following the AI6, Tesla will launch the AI6.5, which promises further optimizations in performance through TSMC’s 2nm technology in Arizona.

💯

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 17, 2026

One of the standout features of the upcoming AI6 and AI6.5 chips is the strategic halving of the TRIP AI computation accelerators dedicated to SRAM. This significant design change aims to dramatically increase effective memory bandwidth, expected to exceed DRAM bandwidth for calculations within the SRAM cache. Musk’s team also plans to optimize the chip further by eliminating outdated architectures from previous Tesla intellectual properties, resulting in a more effective design for its AI projects across Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI.

As production for AI5 aims to ramp up between 2026 and 2027, the target for the rollout of AI6 and AI6.5 is projected between 2027 and 2029.

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