Elon Musk’s AI venture xAI may soon partner with Samsung, highlighting the growing demand for custom AI hardware. Samsung Foundry is reportedly in talks to manufacture chips for xAI.
A tipster named Jukan shared the information on X (formerly known as Twitter), claiming that Samsung Foundry has finalised a contract with xAI. The reports confirmed that Samsung will produce the chips used in its AI accelerators.
xAI is believed to have ordered three EUV (Ultraviolet Lithography) tools for its chip manufacturing plant in Taylor, Texas. EUV tools are among the most advanced machines required to manufacture semiconductor chips. Each machine costs approximately $200 million.
This deal shows the growing relationship between Samsung and Elon Musk. Samsung signed a major $16.5 billion contract to manufacture the AI6 chip for Tesla in July 2025. The two companies also agreed that Samsung would produce Tesla’s AI5 chip.
"The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate," Musk wrote on X, confirming the partnership between Tesla and Samsung.
Samsung’s Taylor fab is the company’s most ambitious semiconductor investment outside South Korea. The facility focuses on advanced manufacturing nodes, such as a 2nm gate-all-around (GAA) process. This node helps to produce chips for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) workloads.
Tesla formerly used NVIDIA’s Drive chips in its vehicles, but dropped them in favor of its own processors in 2019. Musk said that Tesla will continue to use the company’s graphics processing units, which dominate the AI market.
“We’re not about to replace Nvidia, to be clear, but we do use both in combination,” Musk said in October 2025.
The smartphone maker recently introduced its latest flagship mobile processor, the Exynos 2600. It is the world’s first chip built on a 2nm process with advanced GAA technology.
This chip is expected to power the upcoming Samsung S26 series, which is said to include the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, Galaxy S26 Plus, and Galaxy S26.
Also Read: NVIDIA Bets $20 Billion on Elon Musk’s xAI: The Biggest AI Chip Deal in History
Samsung continues to secure new deals to produce cutting-edge chips at its $17 billion Taylor, Texas, facility. The xAI Samsung partnership will be a major win for the Korean foundry as it prepares to begin operation of its new US factory next year.
Samsung delayed accepting delivery of ASML equipment due to weak demand in 2024. Technology enthusiasts are now eagerly awaiting details such as valuation and the production timeline.