Samsung Electronics is expected to soon begin mass production of Tesla’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chip, the “AI5.”

According to the semiconductor industry on the 13th, a senior researcher in Samsung Electronics’ Foundry Business Division recently stated on his LinkedIn account that “the Tesla–Samsung AI5 chip has completed the tape-out stage.”

Tape-out is the stage at which the design of a semiconductor chip is finalized and the layout is handed over to the foundry’s production process to prepare for mass production. As this generally refers to the step immediately before mass production, the industry expects manufacturing to start shortly. The employee added in the post, “This chip will use the 2-nanometer process and be produced at the Taylor plant, and it will soon be mounted on Tesla’s latest products.”

Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive officer (CEO), has previously indicated that there is a possibility of unveiling AI5 samples and some products this year, with large-scale production possible around next year. AI5 is a new autonomous-driving AI semiconductor that succeeds the “AI4,” which Samsung Electronics is currently producing. Its performance is reportedly about 40 times higher than that of the previous model. AI5 is expected to further strengthen Tesla’s Full Self-Driving (FSD) capability. AI5 production was initially expected to be handled exclusively by Taiwan’s TSMC, but it was changed to joint production with Samsung Electronics.

The industry views Samsung’s AI5 order as an opportunity to demonstrate the competitiveness of its 2-nanometer (nm; 1 nm is one-billionth of a meter) process technology. This is also expected to significantly improve the performance of Samsung’s Foundry Business Division. The industry further reports that, on the back of this order, Samsung is also expected to produce Tesla’s next AI chip, the “AI6.”

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