Samsung Taylor 2nm Fab Begins Equipment Move-In Ahead of Tesla AI6 Production

Samsung Foundry has begun installing lithography and process equipment inside its $37 billion Taylor, Texas plant, formalising the next step toward the long-delayed start of 2nm GAA production in the second half of 2026. The equipment move-in ceremony took place on April 24, 2026, and the line has now been mapped to first-silicon for Tesla's autonomous-driving chip family, per TrendForce and Wccftech.

The Taylor fab anchors a $16.5 billion supply contract with Tesla, signed in mid-2025, that locks Samsung in as the manufacturer for Tesla's next-generation AI5 and AI6 self-driving silicon through 2033. AI6 will double performance over AI5 at the same die size by jumping from Samsung's 4nm node to its new 2nm Gate-All-Around process. Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed last year that the AI6 design would be fabricated at Taylor, splitting the previously TSMC-only chip program across two U.S. foundries.

The timeline, however, has slipped. Reuters and TrendForce report that Tesla's AI6 mass-production milestone has been pushed back roughly six months to Q4 2027 after a multi-project-wafer (MPW) shuttle revealed lingering yield and process-maturity issues on Samsung's 2nm GAA flow. Tesla has responded by splitting the program: AI6 remains Samsung Taylor's anchor design, while a refined AI6.5 derivative will be produced on TSMC's 2nm process in Arizona. The dual-sourcing arrangement is the clearest sign yet that hyperscale customers will no longer bet a strategic chip program on a single 2nm vendor — and that Samsung's foundry recovery will live or die by Taylor's yield curve over the next 12 months.