Elon Musk says Samsung's new Texas fab will be dedicated to making Tesla's next-gen AI6 chips

Samsung has secured a huge $16.5 billion foundry contract to make Tesla's next-gen AI6 chip at its new Texas fab, with Elon Musk saying that the strategic importance of this is "hard to overstate".

In a new post on X by the SpaceX and Tesla boss, Elon Musk said: "Samsung's giant new Texas fab will be dedicated to making Tesla's next-generation AI6 chip. The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate. Samsung currently makes AI4. TSMC will make AI5, which just finished design, initially in Taiwan and then Arizona".

Samsung Foundry will be making next-gen AI6 chips for Tesla at its Texas semiconductor facility, with Musk adding that Samsung "agreed to allow Tesla to assist in maximizing manufacturing efficiency. This is a critical point, as I will walk the line personally to accelerate the pace of progress. And the fab is conveniently located not far from my house".

In a world where US chipmaking giant Intel can't secure a contract, so much so that Intel Foundry could shut its doors for good if it can't land a big tech company to use its new in-house Intel 14A node, here's another struggling company -- Samsung -- securing deals with one of the biggest tech and AI companies on the planet to make next-generation AI chips.

An interesting thing to note here is that Elon will be personally involved with the acceleration of the process, and it's a huge win away from TSMC, too.