Musk hails 16.5bn Samsung deal to supply Tesla with AI chips

Samsung has agreed a 16.5bn ( 12.3bn) deal to manufacture artificial intelligence chips for Tesla, in a move hailed by Elon Musk on Monday. The South Korean tech company announced the contract with an unnamed client in a regulatory filing, with Tesla's chief executive giving further details on his social media platform, X. Musk wrote that Samsung would produce Tesla's next-generation A16 chips at a new plant in Texas. "The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate," he wrote. In December, the Biden administration announced 4.75bn in funding for Samsung's semiconductor manufacturing facilities in Texas under the Chips Act, legislation aimed at making the US more self-sufficient in chip manufacturing. At the time, the then US commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, said the funding would ensure the country had a "steady stream" of chips essential to AI and national security. In a post on X on Monday, Musk said Samsung had agree to allow Tesla to "assist in maximising manufacturing efficiency" and he would "walk the [manufacturing] line personally to accelerate the pace of progress".