Tesla CEO Elon Musk met Samsung Electronics Executive Chairman Lee Jae-yong for the first time during the latter's recent business trip to the US. The two top-level executives discussed ways to collaborate on automotive semiconductor chips. The meeting was held at Samsung Research America Headquarters in Silicon Valley, California, USA.
Reports suggest that Elon Musk and Lee discussed the possibility of Samsung Foundry manufacturing semiconductor chips for Tesla's self-driving cars. Tesla is reportedly designing its own processors that power its FSD (Fully Self-Driving) cars, and it could offer a contract to Samsung Foundry to manufacture them. This possibility is being discussed as Kyung Gye-hyun (CEO of Samsung Semiconductor) and Choi Si-young (President & GM, Samsung Foundry) also attended the meeting.
Samsung already offers a lot of components, including chips, for Tesla's electric self-driving cars
Samsung and Tesla already have a working relationship, as Samsung offers a lot of components for Tesla's electric cars, including batteries from Samsung SDI and Exynos Auto chips and camera sensors from System LSI. Samsung Foundry is already making chips for Tesla using its 14nm process in Austin, Texas, USA. It is being reported that future chips will be made using Samsung Foundry's 5nm fabrication process.
While Tesla hasn't announced its decision about who it would award the contract to manufacture its chips, the meeting between Elon Musk and Lee Jae-yong shows positive signs for Samsung. There have also been reports about Tesla thinking of awarding the chip manufacturing contract to Samsung's primary rival TSMC.
