Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk has revealed that the design of the company’s next-generation chip, which powers its full-self-driving (FSD) computer in all its cars, is “almost done”, and has hinted at production and deployment into its vehicles in the not-too-distant future.
On top of that, hints were provided on the upcoming AI6 chip design which is already in early stages of development.
In a post on X, Musk said: “Our AI5 chip design is almost done and AI6 is in early stages,”.
Our AI5 chip design is almost done and AI6 is in early stages, but there will be AI7, AI8, AI9 … aiming for a 9 month design cycle.
Join us to work on what I predict will be the highest volume AI chips in the world by far! https://t.co/2Gibfm3yeY
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 17, 2026
This AI5 or Hardware 5 chip is expected to be much more powerful than the current AI4 chips found in vehicles the company delivers today, enabling FSD supervised capabilities in Australia while Robotaxi capabilities to its cars in parts of the US.
Previously, the company has shared that the AI5 chip will be a 50X improvement over the AI4 chip. In November at the company’s shareholders meeting, it said: “AI5 has potential to be 50x more performant than AI4 (our current hardware)”.
Image: Tesla
Tesla has been designing its own chip hardware for over 12 years now, with Hardware 1 that was developed in collaboration with Mobileye and was used on Model S And early Model X vehicles, which were produced between 2014-2016.
This computer was able to provide the first version of Autopilot using a front-facing camera, ultrasonic sensors and a radar.
Since then, multiple iterations have been seen with Model 3 & Y using more camera hardware, enabling enhanced autopilot, followed by the latest iteration, providing FSD Supervised on all AI4/Hardware 4 enabled cars.
Back in early 2023, The Driven reported that Tesla had started the deliveries of new Model X and Model S EVs in the US featuring its latest AI4 tech.
This featured higher-resolution 5 Megapixel cameras and continues to be one of the most important upgrades in Tesla cars to enable FSD and bumped up the safety cred of all models.
It helped Tesla’s cars win multiple safety awards from EuroNCAP and locally ANCAP, rated as the safest cars these organisations had ever tested.
As recently as last week, both Tesla Model 3 and Y cars with AI4 chips received best-in-class ANCAP awards, with the Model Y achieving the highest overall safety score of any vehicle ever assessed by ANCAP.
Model 3 & Y both receive ANCAP’s Best in Class awards
Model 3 is the safest Medium Car
Model Y is the safest Medium SUV… and achieved highest overall weighted score of any vehicle assessed pic.twitter.com/pYgj35LC5n
— Tesla Australia & New Zealand (@TeslaAUNZ) January 15, 2026
The lineup with the AI5 chip is expected to be available in the next 24 months, enabling even more computing power for FSD and safety systems within Tesla’s cars.
Riz is the founder of carloop based in Melbourne, specialising in Australian EV data, insight reports and trends. He is a mechanical engineer who spent the first 7 years of his career building transport infrastructure before starting carloop. He has a passion for cars, particularly EVs and wants to help reduce transport emissions in Australia. He currently drives a red Tesla Model 3.
