獅山巡禮
投資雜談
Musk said Tesla would probably need to build a giganticchip fab in order to meet the volume of chips that the company is looking for.
Tesla depends on TSMC and Samsung, but still faces shortages despite expanding supplier output.
Teslas growing chip needs come as it leans into AI and robotics industries Musk sees as the future of the global economy.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk says the company will likely need to build a gigantic semiconductor fabrication plant to keep up with its artificial intelligence and robotics ambitions.
One of the things Im trying to figure out is how do we make enough chips? Musk said at Teslas annual shareholders meeting Thursday.
Tesla currently relies on contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company and Samsung Electronics to produce its chip designs. Musk said he was also considering working with U.S. chip company Intel.
But even when we extrapolate the best-case scenario for chip production from our suppliers, its still not enough, he said.
Tesla would probably need to build a gigantic chip fab, which Musk described as a Tesla terra fab. I cant see any other way to get to the volume of chips that were looking for.
Microchips are the brains that power almost all modern technologies, including everything from consumer electronics like smartphones to massive data centers, and demand for them has been surging amid the AI boom.
Tech giants, including Tesla, have been clamoring for more supply from chipmakers like TSMC the worlds largest and most advanced chipmaker.
According to Musk, Teslas potential fabs initial capacity would reach 100,000 wafer starts per month and eventually scale up to 1 million. In the semiconductor industry, wafer starts per month is a measure of how many new
For comparison, TSMC says its annual wafer production capacity reached 17 million in 2024, or around 1.42 million wafer starts per month.
While Tesla doesnt yet manufacture its own microchips, the company has been designing custom chips for autonomous driving for several years.
It is currently outsourcing production of its latest-generation AI5 chip, which Musk said will be cheaper, power-efficient, and optimized for Teslas AI software.
The CEO also announced on Thursday that Tesla will begin producing its Cybercab an autonomous electric vehicle with no pedals or steering wheel in April.
Musks statements underscore Teslas shift into AI and robotics industries the CEO sees as the future of the global economy.
With AI and robotics, you can actually increase the global economy by a factor of 10, or maybe 100. Theres not, like, an obvious limit, Musk said at the shareholder meeting.
