Samsung lands the “deal of the century” with Tesla
The South Korean giant and the American manufacturer have signed a $16.5 billion contract for next-generation AI chips. It's unclear whether the deal is related to the ongoing trade negotiations between South Korea and the Trump administration, but Elon Musk has announced that the chips will be produced in Texas.
Shares of Samsung Electronics jumped nearly 7% on the Seoul Stock Exchange on Monday, July 28, after Elon Musk personally confirmed on his social network X the agreement that his company Tesla had just signed with the Korean firm.
A $16.5 billion (€14.3 billion) contract for the production of AI6 chips designed by Tesla to equip its electric vehicles – including future robotaxis – and its Optimus humanoid robots. This is “the largest order ever placed with Samsung by a single customer,” notes the Financial Times . Its value is equivalent to 7.6% of the company's turnover in 2024.
This deal comes at a good time for Samsung, notes The Wall Street Journal . The Korean giant has until now struggled to gain market share from TSMC, its Taiwanese competitor in the sector of manufacturing custom chips “for customers such as Nvidia, Qualcomm and Apple.” The latter design their chips, but do not have factories to produce them.
“Despite years of investment, the gap between Samsung and TSMC has only widened,” explains the financial daily. According to research firm Trendforce, the Korean firm only holds 8% of the
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