TSMC chief calls Tesla and Intel competitors at earnings call
Elon Musk's expanding semiconductor strategy drew fresh attention this week as TSMC CEO C.C. Wei publicly addressed the competitive dynamics posed by Tesla and Intel during the chipmaker's first-quarter 2026 earnings call on Thursday, while Musk's team simultaneously moved to secure equipment for an in-house chip fabrication campus.
Asked by JPMorgan analyst Gokul Hariharan about Tesla's recently announced "Terafab" initiative and what it means for TSMC, Wei was measured but direct. "Both Intel and Tesla are customers of Taiwan Semiconductor. Of course, they are also our competitors," he said, calling Intel "a strong competitor" while stressing that TSMC would "never underestimate them." He added that there are "no shortcuts" in the foundry business, noting that building a new fab takes two to three years, with another one to two years to ramp production.
Musk Thanks Foundry Partners After AI5 Milestone
The earnings call commentary came just a day after Musk posted on X congratulating Tesla's chip design team for completing the tape-out of AI5 — the finalization of a chip's design before it moves to manufacturing. "Thank you for your production support," Musk wrote, crediting Samsung Electronics and TSMC. He added that the company is also developing "exciting chips like AI6 and Dojo3."
Tesla's foundry roadmap has AI5 produced by both TSMC and Samsung, with Musk confirming as far back as November 2025 that "slightly different versions" of both AI5 and AI6 will be manufactured at TSMC's Arizona fab and Samsung's Taylor, Texas facility. Samsung separately secured a $16.5 billion contract to produce AI6 chips through 2033, though the chip has faced delays tied to Samsung's 2-nanometer yield issues, pushing mass production to late 2027 at the earliest.
Terafab Takes Shape
Beyond relying on external foundries, Musk's team is pursuing its own manufacturing ambitions. According to Bloomberg, staff from a joint venture between Tesla and SpaceX have sought price quotes and delivery timelines from chipmaking equipment suppliers including Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron, and Lam Research for the envisioned Terafab campus in Austin, Texas. The outreach has covered photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, and testing tools, Bloomberg reported.
Intel joined the Terafab project earlier this month, committing its 18A process node and advanced packaging capabilities to the facility. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan called it "a step change in how silicon logic, memory, and packaging will get built in the future."
Wei appeared unfazed by the challenge. "The fundamental rules of the foundry industry have never changed: technological leadership, superior manufacturing capabilities, and customer trust," he told analysts, adding that Tesla remains a TSMC customer and that the company is "highly confident" in its ability to compete for the business.