A South Korean semiconductor engineer has accused Tesla of pressuring Samsung during contract negotiations. According to the allegations, Tesla demanded lower pricing, access to sensitive manufacturing process data, and audit rights. Furthermore, the engineer claims that Tesla’s Terafab project has actively recruited staff from Samsung’s Taylor facility in Texas.
Tesla’s AI5 chip is currently in trial production at the Samsung Taylor plant, with mass production targeted for 2027. The chip design features a large central compute die surrounded by 12 memory modules, aiming for a performance of 2000 to 2500 TOPS. Elon Musk claims the chip offers three times the performance of comparable Nvidia hardware at one-tenth of the cost, though these figures remain unverified.
Future iterations, AI6 and AI6.5, are expected to utilize 2nm processes from TSMC and Samsung respectively. Samsung is currently deploying advanced yield engineers from South Korea to the Texas site to support its 2nm mass production goal for 2027. Meanwhile, Tesla has hinted at potential collaboration with TSMC for the Terafab project, while ruling out equity stakes or operational involvement.
Concerns regarding labor competition between the two companies were previously reported in March. The proximity of the facilities creates structural risks for Samsung regarding the local workforce and supplier resources. Neither Tesla nor Samsung has officially confirmed or denied the recent allegations regarding the contract negotiations and talent poaching.
