Tesla develops its own chips

Tesla is developing its own AI processors. The automaker would be supported by AMD and a team of about 50 developers would be assigned internally to this project.

It all started last year with the recruitment of one of the stars of the chip design: Jim Keller. Considered one of the best designers in the world, Jim Keller owes the design of chips for Apple's smartphones (A4 and A5 in particular) as well as the development of lots of AMD chips.

Jim Keller took the lead of a team that has about 50 people in charge of developing a house chip At Tesla, especially in view of the fully autonomous car that Elon Musk promised for 2019. Several former AMD executives are part of the team like Ganesh Venkataramanan, Bill McGee or Dan Baley, all three recognized as among the best specialists in graphics chip design. The fact of not depending on a third-party manufacturer for such a strategic element is an obsession for the boss of Tesla. It follows the example of Apple, which derives an important strategic advantage, to have its own processor, which is only available on the models of the house. The same Apple is dependent on its competitor Samsung for the supply of the OLED screens that will equip the iPhone X, which will complicate the time of supply.