Tesla is specifically looking for chip designers in South Korea and has even appointed CEO Elon Musk as a recruiter. Behind this is a semiconductor strategy worth billions.
• Tesla Korea is looking for AI chip design engineers via a job posting on X
• Elon Musk personally advertised for the positions in South Korea on February 16, 2026
• The goal is to develop the highest volume AI chips in the world
Tesla’s job advertisement on X
Tesla Korea posted a job advertisement on Platform X on February 15, 2026, in which the company is looking for AI chip design engineers. The aim of the project is to develop an AI chip architecture that will achieve the highest production volume in the world in the future. The application process is deliberately unconventional: interested parties should send an email to [email protected] and describe the three most difficult technical problems they have solved so far.
[Tesla Korea ???? – AI Chip Design Engineer]
Tesla?? ?? ?? ??? ?? ?? AI? ??? ??? ??? ????.
?? ?????? ?? ???? ?? ?? ???? ??? AI? ???? ??? ??? ???.?? ?? ??
AI chip design engineer?? ?? ??
?? ???…– Tesla Korea (@tesla_korea) February 15, 2026
A day later, Elon Musk took up the job advertisement in his own post on X and wrote on February 16, 2026 that anyone who wanted to work on chip design, manufacturing or AI software in Korea should join Tesla. The fact that a CEO personally reinforces a regional job advertisement is unusual, even for Musk. As the South Korean daily newspaper The Korea Herald notes in an article from February 18, 2026, it is rare for Musk to specifically address semiconductor specialists in a specific country.
Why South Korea of all places?
South Korea is one of the most important semiconductor locations in the world. Two of the largest memory chip manufacturers, Samsung and SK hynix, are based in the country. The country’s universities and research institutes train thousands of engineers annually with expertise in chip design, lithography and advanced packaging technologies. This ecosystem is strategically relevant for Tesla because the company is not only a client, but also increasingly its own developer of its AI chips.
In July 2025, Tesla entered into a $16.5 billion manufacturing deal with Samsung Electronics that is scheduled to run through the end of 2033. Samsung will produce Tesla’s next generation AI6 chip at its new factory in Taylor, Texas, based on 2-nanometer manufacturing technology. The previous generation AI4 is already manufactured by Samsung, while the intermediate generation AI5 was commissioned from TSMC. As The Korea Herald reports, Tesla’s poaching of semiconductor workers in Korea is sparking concerns about a possible brain drain. In recent years, specialists in memory chips and high-bandwidth memory have moved to foreign companies such as Micron Technology and the Chinese manufacturer CXMT.
Tesla’s chip roadmap is taking shape
Musk outlined further developments on X on January 17, 2026. The design of the AI5 chip is almost complete, the AI6 is in an early development phase. In addition, Tesla is already planning the AI7, AI8 and AI9 generations with a targeted design cycle of just nine months per generation. For comparison: Industry leaders such as NVIDIAs and AMD typically work with annual or even longer development cycles.
Tesla’s in-house AI chips are a central component of the company’s strategy. They are used in the Full Self-Driving driver assistance system, are intended to power the humanoid robot Optimus and strengthen the training infrastructure in Tesla’s own data centers. Musk described the chips as expected to be the highest-volume AI processors in the world in his January 17, 2026 post. It remains to be seen whether Tesla can actually maintain the ambitious nine-month cycle, as several years have passed between larger hardware generations such as HW3 and HW4. However, the recruiting offensive in South Korea shows that Tesla is ready to invest significant resources in accelerating its chip development.
D. Maier / editorial team finanzen.net
By the way: AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) and other US stocks can even be traded on finanzen.net ZERO until 11 p.m. (without order fees, plus spreads). Open a depot now for free and secure a new customer bonus!
Selected leverage products on AMD (Advanced Micro Devices)
With knock-outs, speculative investors can participate disproportionately in price movements. Simply select the lever you want and we will show you suitable open-end products on AMD (Advanced Micro Devices)
The leverage must be between 2 and 20
Advertising