Tesla may move AI6.5 chip production from TSMC to Intel, but the rumor looks far from certain

Tesla may be considering a major foundry shift for one of its next AI chips, according to a new rumor.

The report claims Tesla could move production of its AI6.5 chip from TSMC to Intel, possibly under pressure from the Trump administration. The claim comes from a Weibo based source shared by tipster Jukan, so it should be treated carefully for now.

Elon Musk previously said Tesla’s AI6 chip would be built by Samsung’s 2nm fab in Arizona, while the higher end AI6.5 chip would be handled by TSMC’s Arizona site. AI6 is expected to tape out in December 2026, with AI6.5 following a couple of months later.

Both chips are expected to use large SRAM allocations and LPDDR6 memory. Musk has said around half of the AI computation accelerators are dedicated to SRAM, which could give the chips much higher effective memory bandwidth for workloads that fit in cache. The AI6 and AI6.5 chips are expected to offer roughly double the performance of Tesla’s AI5 chip while keeping the same reticle size.

The new rumor says Tesla may now shift the TSMC portion of AI6 or AI6.5 production to Intel. The political angle is the most important part of the claim. The Trump administration has reportedly been pushing US companies to use Intel’s domestic fabs, with Apple and Tesla being framed as high profile wins for American chip manufacturing.

Here is the reported situation:

The rumor makes some strategic sense on paper. Intel wants big outside customers for its foundry business, and the US government has a strong interest in making domestic advanced chip manufacturing look successful. Tesla would be a valuable name for Intel to add to its customer list.

But there are reasons to be skeptical.

Tesla has relied heavily on TSMC for advanced chip production, and TSMC remains the safer choice for leading edge manufacturing. Intel’s advanced foundry nodes are still trying to prove themselves with outside customers, and yield risk would matter a lot for a chip as important as Tesla’s AI6.5.

Moving a major AI chip away from TSMC would not be a small decision. It could affect schedules, validation, performance, power targets, packaging, and supply planning. Unless Intel can prove it can meet Tesla’s needs on time and at scale, the switch would carry real risk.

The political pressure angle also makes the story unusual. A government can encourage domestic manufacturing, but Tesla still has to ship working chips for its vehicles, robots, and AI systems. Business needs may matter more than political optics.

Still, the broader direction is clear. Intel is trying to fill its foundry order book with major US customers. Apple has already been linked to possible Intel manufacturing plans, and Tesla would be another powerful signal that Intel Foundry is becoming more relevant.

For now, this should be treated as an unconfirmed rumor. Tesla has not announced a foundry switch, and the odds of moving a high end AI chip away from TSMC remain uncertain.

If it happens, it would be a major win for Intel and a strong political talking point for US chip manufacturing. If it does not, Tesla will likely stay with the more proven foundry path for one of its most important future chips.