By Heekyong Yang and Hyunjoo Jin
(Reuters) -Tesla has signed a $ 16.5 billion deal for Samsung Electronics chip sources, a move that can strengthen the unprofitable contract for the South Korean giant contract, but is unlikely to help Tesla sell more EV.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said late Sunday that the new Samsung chip factory in Taylor, Texas, will make an AI6 chip from the next generation of Tesla. This can be charged with the Samsung project, which is facing long delays, as the company has had problems with retention and attracting large customers.
Samsung’s shares on Monday closed 6.8% in the hope that this deal would help the world’s best chip manufacturer in the race produce artificial intelligence chips, where it follows rivals like TSMC.
Since production is still off, the deal is unlikely to help Tesla deal with the immediate challenges, including the ongoing downturns in EV sales and its efforts to scales its Robotaxi new service. Tesla’s shares were still growing 4.2% on Monday.
Musk said future chips for conclusions, including AI6, would be located in self-operated vehicles and its Optimus humanoid robots, although it noted that the essential computing power could allow for wider AI applications. The chips of the conclusion are used to launch AI models and make real -time decisions.
“Samsung has agreed to allow Tesla to help increase the efficiency of production. This is a critical moment as I will personally walk on the line to speed up the pace of progress. And FAB is comfortably located not far from my house,” Musk said in a post on Monday.
“The $ 16.5B number is just the largest minimum. The actual result will probably be several times higher,” Musk said in another publication.
It was unclear whether the deal was related to current trade negotiations between South Korea and the United States Seoul is looking for partnerships in the US in chips and shipping against the background of efforts of the last moat to achieve a commercial transaction to remove or reduce potential 25% tariffs in the United States.
An employee of the South Korea Ministry of Trade told Reuters that he had not heard that the particular transaction was part of commercial negotiations.
According to a senior analyst at NH Investment & Securities, Ryu Young-Ho, Samsung’s Taylor factory “has not had any customers so far, so this order is quite meaningful”, although the deal can be a small part of the revenue from logical chips a year.
In October, Reuters announced that Samsung had postponed to accept supplies of ASML chip equipment for its Texas factory as it has not yet won big customers for the project. It has already delayed the operating start of the plant by 2026.