Samsung Begins Trial Production of Tesla's AI5 Chips on 2nm Process
Samsung Electronics has reportedly begun prototype production of Tesla's next-generation AI5 chips using its 2nm process at its Taylor, Texas foundry. The factory pulled forward trial production to complete yield validation by the end of this year, aiming for full-scale mass production and delivery in 2025. This development highlights Tesla's aggressive strategy to secure massive compute capacity for Full Self-Driving (FSD), Cybercab, Optimus humanoid robots, and AI supercomputers. For Samsung, successfully manufacturing 2nm chips for Tesla validates its advanced foundry capabilities in North America as it competes directly with TSMC. The trial runs stem from a $16.5 billion chip supply deal signed between Tesla and Samsung. Furthermore, Samsung is preparing to break ground on a second fab at the Texas facility by the end of the year, targeting 1.4nm process production around 2030.
## BACKGROUND
Tesla's AI5 (formerly known as Hardware 5 or HW5) is a ground-up custom silicon design built to unify the company's ecosystem across vehicles, robotics, and data centers. In semiconductor manufacturing, smaller process nodes like 2nm enable chips to pack more transistors, delivering substantially higher performance and energy efficiency.