Samsung Foundry has cleared a critical production hurdle for Tesla's next-generation AI5 chip at its Taylor, Texas facility — and the milestone comes with a significant caveat: Taiwan's TSMC will manufacture a portion of the same chip, signaling that Tesla is betting on a split-foundry approach for its most advanced in-house processor to date.
Samsung Publicly Confirms AI5 Chip Has Cleared Tape-Out
The chip has completed tape-out — the stage at which a finalized circuit design is formally submitted to a fabrication plant to produce physical samples for functional testing. A Samsung executive disclosed the development on LinkedIn, according to reporting by TrendForce and South Korea's Yonhap News Agency. Industry observers noted this as the first time Samsung had publicly acknowledged a concrete production timeline for the AI5.
The chip will be built on Samsung's 2-nanometer process node, one of the most advanced in commercial semiconductor manufacturing today. Volume production will take place at the Taylor facility in Williamson County, Texas — Samsung's flagship U.S. foundry investment and a centerpiece of its push to establish advanced manufacturing capacity on American soil.
Tesla Divides AI5 Orders Between Samsung and TSMC
Samsung will not hold exclusive manufacturing rights for the AI5. Yonhap reported that Tesla plans to split AI5 chip production between Samsung and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) — the Hsinchu-based chipmaker that dominates global advanced-node production and serves as a strategic linchpin in Taiwan's semiconductor industry.
The division of labor extends further down Tesla's chip roadmap. The follow-on AI6 chip is expected to go to Samsung, while the subsequent AI6.5 generation is slated for TSMC. The arrangement paints a picture of Tesla deliberately distributing risk and manufacturing capacity across competing foundries rather than locking in a single supplier.
Meanwhile, Tesla's current AI4 chip continues to be mass-produced at Samsung's Pyeongtaek campus in South Korea on a 7-nanometer process, with an upgraded AI4 variant also set to roll off the same production line.
Taylor Fab Targets 2027 Full Output With Advanced SF2P+ Process
The AI5 tape-out comes as Samsung moves swiftly to bring its Texas plant online. Korean media outlet TheGuru reported that since late April, Samsung has been loading both front-end and back-end semiconductor equipment into the Taylor facility and has dispatched senior engineers from its Korean headquarters to help establish early production yields.
Samsung has separately confirmed — as reported by The Elec — that Taylor will formally begin mass production in 2027. Beyond the standard 2-nanometer process, industry insiders expect Samsung to also deploy an enhanced second-generation variant known as SF2P+ at the Texas site, a step that would sharpen the company's competitive position against TSMC in the leading-edge segment.
For Samsung Foundry, which has faced persistent yield challenges at the most advanced process nodes, securing the Tesla contract represents a meaningful vote of commercial confidence at a pivotal moment — and the Taylor fab's ramp-up will be closely watched as a test of whether the company can challenge TSMC's near-total dominance of the global high-performance chip market. （Related： TSMC Shatters Records as AI Demand Kicks Off the 2nm Era ｜ Latest ）
