Tesla AI5 and AI6 Chips: Elon Musk’s Bold Plan to Redefine AI Hardware

Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) is already one of the world’s most innovative automakers, but its ambitions stretch far beyond cars. Over the past several years, Elon Musk has pushed Tesla to become a leader in artificial intelligence hardware, designing custom processors that can power its Autopilot Full Self-Driving (FSD) software and the Tesla Optimus humanoid robot.

Now, Tesla is preparing to take its AI chips to a new level. After a weekend meeting with his silicon design team, Musk announced that the upcoming AI5 (Hardware 5) processor is nearly complete — and that its successor, AI6, could be “the best AI chip by far.”

With these chips, Tesla aims to reduce reliance on Nvidia’s GPUs, achieve massive cost savings, and build the foundation for a new era of AI-driven products.

From AI3 and AI4 to AI5: A Major Leap Forward

Tesla’s journey into custom silicon started with AI3 (HW3) and AI4 (HW4) processors, both of which were dual-chip designs installed in Tesla cars for redundancy. While they performed well, Musk and his team concluded that this architecture limited efficiency.

With AI5, Tesla is making the bold switch to a single-chip architecture. Musk explained on X (formerly Twitter):

“Switching from doing 2 chip architectures to 1 means all our silicon talent is focused on making 1 incredible chip. No-brainer in retrospect.”

The decision reflects Tesla’s growing confidence in building ultra-reliable AI processors. The single-chip approach reduces cost, improves efficiency, and consolidates engineering resources into one platform.

Musk added that AI5 will likely be “the best inference chip of any kind for models below ~250 billion parameters” — optimized for lowest cost per silicon and best performance per watt.

TSMC to Manufacture AI5

Tesla awarded the AI5 production contract to TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), the world’s largest chip foundry.

Phase 1: Manufacturing will begin in Taiwan.

Phase 2: Production will shift to TSMC’s Arizona fab in the United States.

This move not only strengthens Tesla’s supply chain resilience but also aligns with the company’s U.S.-based operations, especially at Giga Texas, where Tesla runs one of the world’s largest neural network training clusters.

AI6: The Next Revolution in AI Processing

While AI5 is nearing readiness, Musk is already looking ahead to AI6 — a chip he claims could become the best AI processor in the world.

In July 2025, Tesla signed a massive $16.5 billion contract with Samsung to produce AI6 starting in 2026. Manufacturing will take place at Samsung’s state-of-the-art semiconductor fab in Austin, Texas, just 40 minutes from Giga Texas.

Musk emphasized Tesla’s involvement in the project, saying:

“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.”

The proximity of Samsung’s fab to Tesla’s headquarters means faster collaboration, tighter quality control, and quicker scaling once AI6 enters production.

Goodbye Dojo, Hello AI6

Tesla’s Dojo supercomputer project once made headlines as a potential Nvidia competitor. The company spent years developing specialized hardware to accelerate FSD training.

However, Musk recently confirmed that Dojo has been retired.

Dojo 2, which was expected to launch this year, has been canceled.

Musk called it an “evolutionary dead end.”

Instead, he redirected resources to AI5 and AI6 development.

In his words:

“Once it became clear that all paths converged to AI6, I had to shut down Dojo and make some tough personnel choices. Dojo 3 arguably lives on in the form of a large number of AI6 SoCs on a single board.”

In other words, instead of continuing with a separate supercomputer project, Tesla plans to embed the capabilities of Dojo directly into AI6-based systems, effectively merging both paths into a single scalable solution.

Transitioning Away from Nvidia

For years, Tesla has relied heavily on Nvidia’s high-performance GPUs, including the H100 and H200, to power its machine learning clusters. At its Cortex supercluster in Giga Texas, Tesla currently runs some of the largest AI workloads in the world.

But Musk has been clear: Nvidia is a stepping stone, not the destination.

With AI5 and AI6, Tesla aims to transition fully to in-house silicon, eliminating dependence on third-party hardware. This strategy offers several advantages:

Lower costs: Tesla can avoid Nvidia’s premium pricing and control chip production expenses.

Optimization: Chips will be tailored specifically for Tesla’s workloads — FSD, robotics, and AI research.

Scalability: Tesla can deploy AI chips at massive scale across cars, data centers, and even household robots.

If successful, this transition would mirror Apple’s move from Intel CPUs to its own Apple Silicon chips, which gave Apple more control over performance and efficiency.

Impact on Tesla’s Products

Tesla’s new AI chips will not just sit in data centers — they will directly power the company’s most important products:

Autopilot & Full Self-Driving (FSD)
AI5 and AI6 will accelerate the neural-net inference that powers Tesla’s autonomous driving features, potentially closing the gap between today’s FSD beta and true Level 4/5 autonomy.

Tesla Optimus Robot
Musk has repeatedly said Optimus will eventually be Tesla’s most valuable product. For the robot to see and interact with the world in real time, it needs ultra-efficient AI processing. AI5 and AI6 could provide the breakthrough needed.

Future AI Services
Beyond cars and robots, Tesla could leverage its silicon to offer AI services, cloud computing, or licensing opportunities — competing directly with Nvidia, Google, and Amazon in the AI infrastructure market.

Why AI5 and AI6 Matter for Tesla’s Future

Musk’s bold claims about AI5 and AI6 may sound ambitious, but they reflect Tesla’s long-term vision. By designing the world’s best AI chips, Tesla can:

Differentiate itself from competitors in both automotive and AI industries.

Secure supply chain independence from Nvidia and other chipmakers.

Unlock cost savings that improve Tesla’s profitability.

Power the next generation of AI products, from self-driving cars to humanoid robots.

With AI5 production beginning soon and AI6 set for 2026, Tesla is positioning itself as not only an automaker but also a serious AI hardware company.

The unveiling of Tesla’s AI5 and AI6 chips signals a turning point for the company. What began as an effort to build better processors for self-driving cars has evolved into a broader mission: to create the most powerful, efficient, and cost-effective AI hardware in the world.

By partnering with TSMC for AI5 and Samsung for AI6, Musk has secured global manufacturing expertise while keeping production close to Tesla’s U.S. operations. With Dojo retired and resources redirected, all eyes are now on AI5 and AI6 to deliver on Musk’s promises.

If these chips perform as expected, Tesla will no longer just be competing with automakers — it will be competing with Nvidia, Google, and the world’s top AI infrastructure providers. In Musk’s words, AI6 “has a shot at being the best AI chip by far.”

For Tesla, that could mean not just leading in electric vehicles, but shaping the future of artificial intelligence itself.