Part 4/10:
Musk articulated a philosophy of identifying bottlenecks and addressing them proactively, which appears to underpin this decision. While Tesla's current reliance on third-party chip manufacturers has served well, the looming scaling of AI, robotics, and autonomous vehicles demands more control over supply and technological innovation.
Tesla could be positioning itself to produce chips at a colossal scale—potentially reaching 100,000 wafer starts per month, with estimates including 10 chips per wafer yielding over 120 million chips annually. Such numbers are staggering and imply a plan for mass production that could rival, or even surpass, existing semiconductor giants.