Inside Tesla’s $16B Samsung deal

Tesla signs $16.5B chip deal with Samsung to power its AI future

On Monday, Tesla signed a $16.5B agreement with Samsung to manufacture its next-generation AI chips in Texas, marking a major step in its transformation from carmaker to AI and robotics company.

The quick backstory: Samsung’s new Texas fab will produce Tesla’s AI6 chip—a high-performance, all-in-one chip designed to run Full Self-Driving systems, Optimus robots, and data center training workloads. The chips will be built exclusively in the US, with Elon Musk promising to personally oversee manufacturing efficiency.

Tesla in the driver’s seat: Tesla’s AI6 chip allows it to design hardware tailored for its unique stack and move away from its Nvidia crutch. Samsung, for its part, gets a critical anchor client for its new fab after previously struggling to land major deals (Musk hinted the deal could grow well beyond $16.5B).

China’s pitch: global AI without Western rules

Beijing has unveiled its global AI roadmap just days after the Trump administration rolled out its own, escalating the race between the world’s two largest tech powers.

Context: Premier Li Qiang announced the plan at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai, calling for a multilateral approach to AI development and regulation. China’s plan includes proposals to expand AI across domestic industries, build partnerships with the Global South, and establish a global AI cooperation organization.

China’s approach: Rather than competing on model performance or chip power alone, China is staking its claim on influence. The country wants to define the diplomatic and commercial architecture around AI, especially in regions where US export controls have limited access to advanced chips. It’s already positioning AI partnerships as a key export alongside infrastructure and manufacturing.

DOGE launches AI tool to fight overregulation

Developers at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have built an AI tool designed to slash regulations. The goal? Eliminate half of them within the first year of President Trump’s term.

What’s happening: According to a July 1 PowerPoint obtained by The Washington Post, DOGE is using a new Deregulation Decision Tool to analyze 200,000 federal rules and flag the ones no longer required by law.

The tool in action: The AI tool has reportedly reviewed rules at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and written “100% of deregulations” at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

AI Is Only as Powerful as its Infrastructure

That’s where Cisco comes in. At Cisco Live, I was able to talk with some of the brightest minds in the AI space and see demos of cutting-edge AI technology.

My biggest takeaway? Powering the AI era isn’t just about smarter software—it’s about the architecture that makes it possible. And Cisco is producing that architecture.

Some of the Cisco demos included how they’re using AI to:

• Power application defenses, energy management, and network infrastructure

• Build new and improved AI-native systems

• Improve speed and security for future AI-enabled products

Want more AI news and insights from Cisco Live?

Drop in a doc, get a mind map

Mapify uses AI to turn PDFs, websites, videos, and audio into structured visual diagrams. It pulls key concepts, builds connections, and generates a fully mapped-out summary—perfect for cramming, planning, or presenting.

How you can use it:

• Turn a dense research report into a digestible map

• Map your professor’s notes from a lecture transcript

• Summarize a 60-minute lecture into visual clusters

• Use the chat assistant to explore linked topics in real time

Pricing: Paid; plans start at $5.99/month

Your AI visual memory layer

Memories.ai turns hours of unstructured video into searchable, scannable, and even editable assets using AI. It recognizes scenes, tracks characters, detects actions, and pulls summaries—all from natural language prompts.

How you can use it:

• Summarize long Zoom recordings by topic

• Instantly find every clip where a specific person appears

• Track compliance violations in security footage

• Auto-edit highlight reels from raw content

Pricing: Free plan offers 500 credits per month; paid starts at $20/month