Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Inc., has announced that Samsung Electronics will play a larger role in the production of Tesla's automotive chips, marking the company's entry into a market segment currently dominated by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

During a conference call with investors, Musk stated that Samsung will share the manufacturing responsibilities for Tesla's current generation AI chip, the AI5. Previously, he indicated that this chip would be produced solely by TSMC, the world's largest semiconductor foundry.

Musk clarified, "I need to clarify some of my previous public statements; we are actually going to have both TSMC and Samsung focus on the AI5 project first."

Tesla relies on AI chips to power its autonomous driving capabilities and the early-stage robotics product line. The company combines this technology with hardware from NVIDIA, a leading manufacturer of AI computing processors.

In July, Musk mentioned a collaboration with Samsung to produce the next-generation AI6 chip, confirming a report from Bloomberg. The two companies signed a $16.5 billion agreement, seen as a significant victory for Samsung's foundry division.

At that time, Musk stated that Samsung was already engaged in the production of the previous generation AI4 chip, while Tesla would depend on TSMC for the version currently under development.

Although Samsung still lags significantly behind TSMC in the chip manufacturing sector, it is ramping up investments in its production facility located near Austin, not far from Tesla's headquarters.