According to reporting by Korea Economic Daily, Samsung Electronics will manufacture Tesla’s next-generation hardware 4 (HW 4.0) chip. The new chip will power Tesla’s fully autonomous driving technology.
Samsung competed with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) for the contract. Samsung produced the HW 3.0 chip that is used in Tesla’s current fleet of vehicles.
According to the sources, Samsung and Tesla have been working together since 2021 on design and samples. Samsung announced that they would mass-produce the HW 4.0 at its Hwasung plant in Korea if their bid were successful.
The chip will use the 7-nanometer processing technology at the plant and will start coming off the line in Q4 2021.
Although Samsung can produce 5-nanometer chips, the company chose to use 7-nanometer technology. The reason for this is both Tesla and Samsung wanted higher production yields and stable functions when installed on full self-driving cars.
Neither Tesla nor Samsung confirmed that a deal is in place, nor did they comment on the reports of a contract.
