A few days after Elon Musk hinted at the Terafab AI chip factory official launch, Tesla started looking for the specialized workers it needed to build a semiconductor factory from scratch.
X user @TeslaRyanRogue was the first to notice the hiring push. He pointed out a new job opening for a Technical Program Manager in Infrastructure Semiconductors in Austin, Texas, which shows that the project has moved from idea to high-tech construction.
Why Tesla is making its own chips
Tesla has been trying to vertically integrate for the past ten years, but computer chips are still one of the few important parts it has outsourced. That reliance has become a big risk as the company moves from being just a carmaker to an AI and robotics company. Musk has said that chip supply will be the next big problem, especially since Tesla is getting ready to make a lot of the Cybercab robotaxi as well as the Optimus humanoid robot.
The job description makes it clear what the program will cover by saying that the person will own end-to-end program scoping, which includes factory designing & construction from the ground up and getting them ready for manufacturing. One of the hardest things to make is a chip fab. Choosing the right site is very important because these plants need extremely accurate lithography – even small vibrations from a nearby highway can ruin a production run. Tesla wants to do for silicon what it did for battery cells by moving this work to Austin.
The Tesla silicon roadmap
The AI chips that Tesla makes are the brains of its ecosystem. Samsung makes the AI4 chips that power the Full Self-Driving – FSD system in most cars today. The AI5 chip is already designed, and TSMC and Samsung will work together to make it. The goal is to start mass production in the middle of 2027 and make a big jump in performance.
In the future, Tesla has signed a big deal with Samsung to make AI6 in factories in the U.S. The endgame is the Terafab. It would let Tesla change the designs of future chips at its own pace. Musk has also said that the AI7 chip and later versions could one day be used in space-based orbital data centers, where they would work with SpaceX and xAI.
Getting the Machine that Builds the Machine moving faster
To set up a fab, one needs to bring together all the tools and knowledge needed for processes like lithography, etching, and deposition. Tesla is looking for leaders who have managed capital expenditures of more than $100 million to oversee everything right from planning utilities to tool installation and production qualification.
Tesla plans to keep working with TSMC and Samsung for the next few years, but the Terafab AI chip factory is meant to give them more direct control over the AI stack. A successful ramp-up of chip production in Austin would help the company get around its chip supply problems.