Samsung’s giant new Texas fab will be dedicated to making Tesla’s next-generation AI6 chip. The strategic importance of this is hard to overstate. Samsung currently makes AI4. TSMC will make AI5, which just finished design, initially in Taiwan and then Arizona.

The Korean group has landed a much-needed contract to supply chips to Elon Musk's electric-car maker. It gives Samsung the chance to show its products can compete with TSMC. But its unprofitable foundry business needs more customers to properly turn around its fortunes.