Tesla and the Six Domains

materials · silicon · energy · data

Tesla has programs in all six foundation domains, more than any other company. It owns the designs and the data loop, but still buys its wafers, its training GPUs and much of its battery supply chain.

Tesla mapped against the Six Foundation Domains, showing what it owns in-house and what it still buys. Materials: in-house lithium refinery and cathode plant; still external graphite, LFP cells and Chinese solar manufacturing tools, a dependency concentrated in China. Silicon: in-house AI4, AI5 and AI6 chip design and the planned Terafab; fabrication still at Samsung Taylor and TSMC Arizona. Energy: in-house Megapack, Megablock and Autobidder; still dependent on grid service. Thermal: in-house 4680 cell design and Cortex cooling; outside cooling hardware. Data: in-house fleet data, FSD models and over-the-air updates; training runs on Nvidia GPUs in Cortex clusters. Operational: in-house Austin robotaxi service and Optimus pilots; still relies on remote operators and field staff. TESLA BY DOMAIN: WHAT IT OWNS AND WHAT IT STILL BUYS IN-HOUSE STILL EXTERNAL Materials Lithium refinery, cathode plant Graphite, LFP, solar tools Silicon AI4, AI5, AI6 design; Terafab Samsung Taylor, TSMC Arizona Energy Megapack, Megablock, Autobidder Utility grid service Thermal 4680 cell, Cortex cooling Chillers, cooling hardware Data Fleet data, FSD models, OTA Nvidia GPUs in Cortex clusters Operational Austin robotaxi, Optimus pilots Remote operators, field staff Red: dependency concentrated in China. Gray: other outside suppliers.
Domains with programs
All six
Chip fabrication
Samsung, TSMC
Training compute
Nvidia
Hub
Autonomy

Finding

Tesla is the only company with programs in all six domains, but its autonomy still rests on outside fabs, outside GPUs and Chinese-origin materials

Tesla designs its inference chips, writes its driving software, collects its own fleet data and builds its own storage and charging hardware. It does not fabricate its chips (Samsung and TSMC do), it trains on Nvidia GPUs after winding down Dojo in 2025, and its LFP and graphite supply still traces to China.

No other company covers as much of the stack. BYD comes closest from the other direction: it makes its own cells, power semiconductors and vehicles, and its in-house chip work is growing, but it buys autonomy compute from Nvidia and Horizon Robotics. Huawei covers chips, software and cloud but builds no vehicles or batteries. Nvidia covers silicon and data but depends on TSMC and its customers' fleets. Most automakers cover one or two domains and buy the rest.

Two programs carry most of the execution risk. Terafab, announced in Austin on March 21, 2026, would move Tesla from chip designer to chipmaker; Musk has put volume production at Q3 2028 with large error bars, and the near-term supply still runs through Samsung Taylor. In operations, Tesla runs driverless robotaxis in Austin and had 1,080 driverless vehicles registered in Texas in October 2026 (AustinIO tracks the Texas deployments), but Optimus is still in pilot work inside Tesla plants. The Corpus Christi lithium refinery is the clearest materials win: the first large lithium hydroxide refinery in the US, in a market where China refines about 74% of the world's lithium.

Programs

Tesla programs by domain

Status as of October 2026; assessments are ElectronsX's.

Tesla programs by domain
DomainProgramsStatusMain remaining gap
MaterialsCorpus Christi lithium hydroxide refinery; Texas cathode plant; LG Energy Solution LFP supply; Chinese solar tool purchase (reported)Refinery producing; LFP supply contractedGraphite and LFP cathode still trace to China
SiliconAI4 in production; AI5 taped out April 2026, built at Samsung Taylor and TSMC Arizona; AI6 at Samsung Taylor; Terafab announced March 2026Design captive, fabrication boughtNo wafer-fab experience; Terafab volume targeted for Q3 2028
EnergyMegapack (Lathrop, Shanghai, Brookshire), Megablock, Autobidder, Supercharger network, solar manufacturing planProducts sold externallyUS solar manufacturing at scale is unbuilt
ThermalTabless 4680 cell; Cortex training clusters at Giga TexasOperatingOptimus joint heat removal not disclosed
DataFleet data engine, end-to-end FSD networks, OTA updates, inference on Tesla siliconCaptive loop; Dojo wound down in 2025Training compute is Nvidia hardware
OperationalDriverless robotaxi in Austin; FSD (Supervised) on owner cars; Cybercab; Optimus pilots in Tesla plantsSupervised band on public roadsOptimus far from unsupervised factory work

Peers

How other companies compare

Domain coverage by company
CompanyStrongest domainsMain outside dependency
TeslaSilicon design, energy, data, operationsWafer fabs, training GPUs, battery materials
BYDMaterials (cells), power semiconductors, vehiclesAutonomy compute (Nvidia, Horizon Robotics); advanced logic fabs
HuaweiSilicon (Ascend, HiSilicon), autonomy software, cloudVehicles built by partners; US export controls on fab tools
NvidiaSilicon design, training infrastructure, simulationTSMC fabrication; partners' fleets for data
Waymo (Alphabet)Data, autonomy software, operationsVehicles (Jaguar, Zeekr, Hyundai), Google TPUs for training
AmazonOperations (warehouses, Zoox), cloud, dataVehicle, battery and chip supply chains

Sources

Sources and scope

Scope
Tesla and the Six Foundation Domains
Sources
Tesla filings and earnings calls (2025-26); Musk remarks (March and October 2026); TxDMV via texasavtracker.com; AustinIO
Updated
October 2026