Tesla has entered a high volume chip supply agreement with Samsung Electronics valued at $16.5 billion, a deal seen by market observers as crucial to the fortunes of the Korean chip giant, which has been a loss-making business for the Samsung group. The deal will see Samsung supply Tesla's A16 and A15 SoCs for the various electronics of Tesla products. Leading this order will be Samsung's Taylor TX fab, which was built in assistance with the US CHIPS and Science Act, and took a $17 billion initial investment from the Samsung group. The fab broke ground in 2022.
The deal will see Tesla work closely with Samsung to optimize its manufacturing processes, ensuring that Tesla has greater control over the reliability of its chip supply, and there are no gotchas resulting from chip yields that could affect Tesla. In a post on X, Elon Musk said "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." Mass-production of Tesla SoCs from the Samsung Taylor Texas fab is expected to commence in late-2026. Commenting on this deal, Lee Dong-ju, an analyst at SK Securities, expects production in 2027 or 2028. Tesla sources its SoCs from both Samsung and TSMC, with the latter producing some of its SoCs in its Arizona fab.