Tesla CEO Elon Musk has shared a recruitment notice from Tesla Korea, announcing efforts to attract talent in the semiconductor field. This move is seen as part of Tesla's strategy to strengthen its semiconductor design and manufacturing capabilities as competition in the artificial intelligence chip market intensifies.
On the 17th local time, Musk reposted on his social media platform X a job listing from Tesla Korea for AI chip design engineers. In his post, Musk wrote, "If you want to work in chip design, wafer manufacturing, or AI software in Korea, consider applying to Tesla," accompanied by a South Korean flag emoji.
The recruitment effort is widely interpreted as Tesla's intention to tap into South Korea's top semiconductor design and process engineering talent to enhance the competitiveness of its AI chips. In South Korea, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix both hold leading global positions in high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a critical component for AI chips. Demand for HBM is surging as the need for AI computing power grows rapidly.
This talent recruitment plan aligns closely with Tesla's strategy of developing its own chips. Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, is developing the Grok large language model, competing directly with OpenAI's ChatGPT. To support this endeavor, Tesla requires high-performance AI chips capable of processing massive amounts of data.
Additionally, demand for automotive semiconductors and data center AI chips continues to rise as Tesla works to deploy its robotaxi business and advance its Full Self-Driving (FSD) technology. Currently, Tesla is collaborating with Samsung Electronics and TSMC on the manufacturing of AI chips. Samsung will supply Tesla with the AI5 autonomous driving chip, designed for the FSD system, which is reported to be 40 times more powerful than its predecessor. Tesla initially considered having TSMC exclusively produce the chip but later adjusted to a joint production model with Samsung.
In July of last year, Samsung Electronics signed a 23 trillion won foundry supply agreement with Tesla. Under the agreement, the next-generation AI6 chip will be mass-produced at Samsung's facility in Taylor, Texas.
It has been reported that since their first meeting in 2023, Samsung Chairman Lee Jae-yong and Musk have maintained close communication. Observers are now watching closely whether the two companies will expand their collaboration further in semiconductors, electric vehicles, and artificial intelligence.