Tesla is aggressively growing its hardware engineering footprint in South Korea by launching a major recruitment drive for chip design engineers to support its future AI roadmap. This strategic move signals a deeper commitment to the region, which already serves as a critical manufacturing hub for the automaker through its ongoing partnership with Samsung Electronics.
The official Tesla AI account recently posted a call for world-class talent to join its Korea-based team. According to the announcement, the project aims to develop AI chip architecture that will achieve the highest production volume in the world in the future. The recruitment push comes as Tesla accelerates its in-house silicon strategy, with CEO Elon Musk noting that the design for the AI5 chip is nearly complete while development for its successor, AI6, is already underway. Hopefully there will be options to upgrade the chip in your Tesla instead of always buying a new car (because not everyone can always afford that).
By building a dedicated team in South Korea, Tesla is positioning its engineers near Samsung’s premier fabrication facilities in Hwaseong, creating a tighter feedback loop between design and manufacturing. Industry experts believe the Korea-based team will focus on optimizing chip architectures specifically for Tesla’s vision-based Full Self-Driving systems and future Optimus humanoid robots. This effort supports Musk’s goal of shrinking the traditional three-year chip design cycle to a rapid nine-month cadence for future iterations.
This expansion is part of a broader $16.5 billion partnership with Samsung Electronics. While Samsung is preparing its Taylor, Texas, facility for mass production of AI5 chips in late 2026, many of the initial production runs and engineering validations are expected to take place at Samsung’s existing South Korean plants. By hiring locally, Tesla is tapping into one of the world’s deepest talent pools for semiconductor expertise.
