Musk bets Tesla's AI future on Intel node that isn't finished yet
- Reference: 1776944592
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/04/23/musk_bets_teslas_ai_future/
- Source link:
"Intel is excited to partner with us on some of the core manufacturing technologies," Musk said, referring to [1]Tesla's planned "Terafab" chipmaking push , which he says is aimed at producing its own AI silicon at scale. He added that Tesla plans to use "Intel's 14A process, which is state-of-the-art and in fact, not yet totally complete."
Elon Musk wants to build 50 times more chips than the world currently produces, using 'new physics' [2]READ MORE
That last bit didn't seem to trouble him. "By the time Terafab scales up, 14A will be probably fairly mature or ready for prime time… we think it's going to be a great partnership," Musk added.
The 14A process Musk is referring to is a future node beyond Intel's upcoming 18A, itself not yet in production, that's supposed to be the chipmaker's shot at clawing back relevance against rivals that have spent the past few years eating its lunch.
Musk framed the move less as opportunism and more as existential panic about supply. "Terafab is not some sort of mechanism to generate leverage over our chip suppliers," he said. "We don't see a path to having enough sufficient quantity of AI chips down the road… we just anticipate hitting the wall if we don't make chips ourselves."
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That urgency doesn't quite line up with the [4]numbers [PDF]. Tesla is still shifting a huge number of cars, but revenue dipped year-on-year, and profits fell further, with margins getting squeezed as costs rise and spending on AI and manufacturing keeps climbing.
[5]
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Which helps explain the rest of the pitch. If the next phase of Tesla is built on autonomy and AI rather than just selling cars, then securing its own supply of chips – or building them outright – starts to make sense.
[7]Intel gets trapped in Elon's reality distortion field as it joins in megafab delusions
[8]Musk makes the Macrohard joke again
[9]Musk distracts from struggling car biz with fantastical promise to make 1 million humanoid robots a year
[10]Tesla revenue falls for first time as Musk bets big on robots and autonomy
There's also the usual Muskian moonshot layered on top. "We do have some ideas for how to make maybe radically better AI chips," he said, quickly caveating that these are "research ideas… long shot," albeit ones that could deliver a "giant improvement" if they land.
That same long-shot thinking runs through the rest of Tesla's plans. On robotaxis, he stuck to the familiar script: expansion is coming, slowly but surely, with Europe still a tougher regulatory nut to crack. On humanoid robots, the pitch was even bigger. Musk again positioned Optimus as the endgame, repeating that it could become Tesla's "biggest product," with production ramping – in his words – "slowly" before eventually scaling to something meaningful.
Put it together and Tesla looks less like a car company branching into AI, and more like something else entirely that still happens to sell cars. Tesla is preparing to spend tens of billions to build chips, robots, and autonomous systems, while warning it may not have enough silicon to keep up with its own plans.
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And if that sounds like a lot to pull off at once, Musk appears unfazed – after all, the manufacturing process he's betting on isn't even finished yet. ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/23/musk_terafab/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/23/musk_terafab/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aepCI3NrPM4Jm3DymA3BcAAAAhU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://assets-ir.tesla.com/tesla-contents/IR/TSLA-Q1-2026-Update.pdf
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aepCI3NrPM4Jm3DymA3BcAAAAhU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aepCI3NrPM4Jm3DymA3BcAAAAhU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/07/intel_elon_space_delusion/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2026/03/12/musk_macrohard/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/29/truth_telling_man_always_tells_truth/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/29/tesla_revenue_drop/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aepCI3NrPM4Jm3DymA3BcAAAAhU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
And if that sounds like a lot to pull off at once, Musk appears unfazed
It's why he's worth billions of dollars.
Because he's really good at pulling things off?
I doubt he pulls off anything really big though.
Europe still a tougher regulatory nut to crack
Of course so much easier now that the US is the flavour of the month everywhere.
Chaps in black suits performing "Roman" salutes are pretty popular too.
Translating Muskese
"Terafab is not some sort of mechanism to generate leverage over our chip suppliers," he said.
Translation: "Terafab is a mechanism to generate leverage over our chip suppliers."
Re: Translating Muskese
Levers? Isn't everything supposed to be touch and gesture based these days?
Re: Translating Muskese
No, it's a mechanism to cheer investors and it seems to be working. Meanwhile in normally all fields that Tesla/SpaceX/xAI is active, the competition is either already head (self-driving, AI), has caught up (electric vehicles), or is catching up (rocket launchers). When it comes to chips, everyone else is ahead in chip design and it's almost facile to suggest that Musk has some kind of secret sauce to help Intel overcome years of missteps in process engineering.
But the fanboys were happy so the shareprice went up.
Typical musk
Numbers aren't good, so "look over there" approach. Tomorrow we will have a mega giga tera thing that generates quadrillions in returns.
The same procedure as always
Pump and Dump!
And in other news...
ElekTrek (and others) are reporting that Tesla may well (yeah right and pigs might fly) build small factories around the world so that all those who bought FSD can have their cars upgraded to support the sensors and CPU's needed to make it work.
I see this as smoke and mirrors in an attempt to deflect from the huge Class Action lawsuit that will hit Tesla and Musk for billions. He made promise after promise that it was coming. AFAIK, those claims go back to 2016.
Intel - future processes
have theyy fixed 10nm yet? or are we still on 14nm+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Battle of the Titans
Musk's lies battle it out with Intel's for Crown of Overpromise