EL7.AI
StocksMedium•24 October 2026•
4 min read

Tesla Begins Volume Production of Semi; Report Attributes $2.8 Billion Funding to Tesla and Nvidia

Key Facts

1Tesla began volume production of its Class 8 Semi truck on a high-volume line in Nevada.
2An investment of 3.7 trillion won, equivalent to $2.8 billion, in Samsung Electro-Mechanics was attributed to Tesla and Nvidia.
3According to the report, Tesla’s attributed contribution is 1.1 trillion won and Nvidia’s is 2.6 trillion won.
4Nvidia expects its agreements with three suppliers to increase substrate capacity 2.5 times over the following three years.
5Tesla’s capital spending was $4.732 billion in the third quarter of 2026, compared with $2.248 billion a year earlier.

Tesla said in its third-quarter 2026 update that it had begun volume production of its Class 8 heavy-duty Semi truck on a high-volume production line in Nevada. The announcement places the truck in large-scale manufacturing, after its production and delivery ramp-up had been the focus of previous coverage. In a parallel development related to the AI supply chain, Reuters cited a report by Maeil Business Newspaper saying Samsung Electro-Mechanics would receive an investment of 3.7 trillion won, or $2.8 billion, from Tesla and Nvidia. The funding details were based on industry sources and were not presented as a joint announcement by the two companies. Together, the developments link Tesla’s expansion of heavy-vehicle manufacturing with efforts to secure components tied to computing and autonomous-driving capabilities.

According to the report cited by Reuters, Tesla is attributed a contribution of 1.1 trillion won, compared with Nvidia’s 2.6 trillion won, to build production lines in the South Korean city of Sejong. Maeil’s report links Tesla’s share to chip substrates used in autonomous-driving systems and the Optimus robot, making the funding part of future supply arrangements for the company. The announcement by Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Nvidia concerns ABF packaging substrates for Nvidia’s AI processors and high-speed networking solutions. Samsung says the partnership includes dedicated production lines in Sejong and Busan, and that multi-year supply to Nvidia will begin in 2026. According to the report’s account, mass production on Tesla’s line will not begin before the second half of 2028, while supply of chips associated with the Tesla agreement is expected to begin in 2029. These timelines distinguish the start of Nvidia supply from the capacity expansion serving the agreement attributed to Tesla.

The move comes as part of Nvidia’s broader plan to increase available capacity for the packaging substrates used in its processors. The company said its agreements with IBIDEN, Samsung Electro-Mechanics and Unimicron will increase total capacity 2.5 times over the three years following its announcement on October 21, 2026. Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang described the equation, saying: "Demand is exceptional, and capacity is the constraint." The expansion program also includes Unimicron in Taiwan, where Nvidia expects capacity additions to begin in the second quarter of 2027 and full capacity to be reached by mid-2028. The company also expects to double total semiconductor testing capacity between 2026 and 2027, supported by facilities in the United States, Taiwan and Singapore. The plans show Samsung’s expansion as part of a multi-partner effort to address the production constraints Nvidia has identified in the AI infrastructure supply chain.

Tesla’s industrial plans coincide with an expansion in capital spending. The company’s capital expenditure reached $4.732 billion in the third quarter of 2026, compared with $2.248 billion in the same quarter of 2025. On a trailing four-quarter basis through the end of the third quarter, spending totaled $15.407 billion, compared with $8.914 billion for the period ending in the third quarter of 2025. The company said it plans to reach 400 megawatts of computing capacity for AI training by the end of 2026 to support development of autonomous-driving software for vehicles and humanoid robots. It also said construction of the Austin Fab is continuing, with a plan to begin trial operation of its equipment in 2027. These investments provide financial and operational context for Tesla’s stated focus on manufacturing, computing and AI-related products.

In market performance, EL7 data showed Tesla shares closed at $372.22 on October 23, 2026. The data provided do not include verified closing prices for Nvidia or other chip companies that day. On the truck’s specifications, Tesla said the top-end Semi version can travel 500 miles at a gross combined weight of 82,000 pounds, with energy consumption of 1.7 kilowatt-hours per mile. These figures offer a picture of the range and efficiency the company claims for the heavy-duty truck, alongside its move into volume production. In the supply chain, Samsung Electro-Mechanics expects the volume of its substrates dedicated to Nvidia to grow at a double-digit annual rate and to represent a significant share of its annual capacity by 2028. The company thus sets a future date for Nvidia production to account for a greater share of its capacity, while the reported expansion of Tesla’s line remains tied to a schedule that begins later.