Elon Musk says Tesla needs to build 'gigantic chip fab' to meet AI and robotics needs

Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the institution volition apt request to physique a "gigantic" semiconductor fabrication works to support up with its artificial quality and robotics ambitions.

"One of the things I'm trying to fig retired is — however bash we marque capable chips?" Musk said astatine Tesla's yearly shareholders gathering Thursday.

Tesla presently relies connected declaration chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung Electronics to nutrient its spot designs and Musk said helium was besides considering moving with Intel. 

"But adjacent erstwhile we extrapolate the best-case script for spot accumulation from our suppliers, it's inactive not enough," helium said.

Tesla would astir apt request to physique a "gigantic"  spot fab, which Musk described arsenic a "Tesla terra fab." "I can't spot immoderate different mode to get to the measurement of chips that we're looking for." 

Microchips are the brains powering astir each modern technologies, from smartphones and cars to robotics. Demand has surged amid the AI boom. 

Tech giants, including Tesla, person been clamoring for much proviso from chipmakers similar TSMC — the world's largest and astir precocious chipmaker. 

According to Musk, Tesla's imaginable fab's archetypal capableness could scope 100,000 wafer starts per period and yet standard up to 1 million. In the semiconductor industry, wafer starts per period is simply a measurement of however galore caller chips a fab produces each month.

For comparison, TSMC says its yearly wafer accumulation capableness reached 17 cardinal successful 2024, oregon astir 1.42 cardinal wafer starts per month.

Musk's statements underscore Tesla's displacement into AI and robotics — industries the CEO sees arsenic the aboriginal of the planetary economy. 

"With AI and robotics, you tin really summation the planetary system by a origin of 10, oregon possibly 100. There's not, like, an evident limit," Musk said astatine the shareholder meeting.