March 14 (Reuters) – Tesla (TSLA) Chief Executive Elon Musk said on Saturday that the company’s Terafab project to make artificial intelligence chips will start within seven days.
Musk said last year that Tesla might have to build “a giant chip factory” to produce artificial intelligence chips.
Tesla is designing fifth-generation artificial intelligence chips to realize its self-driving ambitions, and Musk laid out potential manufacturing plans at the company’s annual meeting last year.
Musk had suggested at the time that the electric car maker could partner with Intel, saying: “You know, maybe we’ll do something with Intel.”
“We haven’t signed anything yet, but it might be worth discussing with Intel,” he said.
Tesla did not immediately respond to a Reuters request seeking more details about the project.
Musk has previously teased the AI5 chip and reiterated that Tesla is also working with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and South Korea’s Samsung. Artificial intelligence chips power Tesla’s Autopilot system, including Full Self-Driving software.
“Even if we extrapolated the best-case scenario for chip production from our suppliers, that’s still not enough,” Musk said at Tesla’s annual shareholder meeting last year.
“So I think we’re probably going to have to build a Tesla terafab. It’s like a gigascale factory, but much bigger. I don’t see any other way to get the volume of chips that we’re looking for. So I think we’re probably going to have to build a giant chip factory. That’s what’s going to have to be done,” he said.
(Reporting by Akanksha Khushi in Bengaluru; Editing by Louise Heavens)
