Tesla seeks Taiwan chip engineers for Terafab project

TAIPEI, (Reuters) – Tesla is seeking semiconductor engineers in Taiwan for its Terafab artificial intelligence chip complex, according to job ​postings on its website.

Taiwan is home to the world’s largest ‌contract chipmaker, TSMC, and has a highly specialised workforce with experience in leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing.

Tesla has posted nine engineering roles in Taiwan for its Terafab ​project, seeking candidates with more than five years of experience ​in advanced chipmaking processes.

The roles describe Terafab as a “vertically integrated ⁠semiconductor factory” combining logic, memory, packaging, test and lithography mask ​production under one roof.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk last month unveiled the Terafab project ​to build a massive artificial intelligence chip fab to power his robotics and data center ambitions.

Several roles require experience in advanced chip manufacturing nodes below 7 ​nanometres and reference 2-nanometre-class technologies, where Taiwan’s semiconductor industry has ​extensive expertise.

One of the roles also requires familiarity with advanced packaging flows such as ‌CoWoS ⁠and SoIC, technologies that were developed by TSMC.

The engineering positions span several core front-end fabrication steps, including lithography, etching, thin films and chemical mechanical planarization, as well as yield engineering and process integration.

The ​factory is expected ​to support chip ⁠families including edge-inference processors, space-hardened chips for orbital satellites and high-bandwidth memory, according to the job postings.

Tesla ​did not immediately respond to a request for ​comment.

The hiring ⁠push comes as demand for AI drives companies to secure more advanced chipmaking capacity, amid constraints at TSMC.

When asked about Terafab, TSMC said on ⁠Thursday ​it would not underestimate competitors, but added ​there are “no shortcuts” in the industry, as it takes two to three years to ​build a new fabrication plant.

Reporting by Wen-Yee Lee; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus