South Korean media reported that Samsung is set to manufacture a new generation of Full Self-Driving (FSD) chips for Tesla’s Level 5 autonomous vehicles. These chips will be utilized in Tesla Hardware 5 (HW 5.0) onboard computers, with production expected to commence after 2025. The chips will be manufactured using Samsung’s 4nm process.

TrendForce’s analysis:

Samsung May Competing with TSMC for Tesla HW 5.0 Chips

In the early stages of Tesla’s autonomous driving technology, the company collaborated with Samsung for FSD chips used in various vehicle models, including Model 3, Model 5, Model X, and Model Y. However, in 2022, Tesla chose to work with TSMC, citing TSMC’s better yield performance in 4nm process technology at that time.

In response, Samsung has been actively improving its 3nm and 4nm process technologies within a short period. While Samsung’s 4nm process yield has reached 75%, it still slightly lags behind TSMC’s 80%. Despite this difference, given their previous collaborations, it is not ruled out that Tesla might place orders with both TSMC and Samsung this time. The main reason being Samsung’s plan to advance to the 2nm-level SF2 process technology in 2025 and further progress to the 1.4nm-level SF1.4 process technology in 2027, aligning its overall roadmap with TSMC’s. This advancement will assist Tesla in accelerating the production plan of its DOJO supercomputer, facilitating the transition to Level 5 autonomous driving.

(Photo credit: Tesla)