Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, is personally spearheading a recruitment drive in Korea, issuing a rare direct appeal to semiconductor professionals in the country.
On Tuesday (local time), Musk reposted a hiring announcement from Tesla Korea on X, adding a Korean flag emoji and writing, “If you're in Korea and want to work on chip design, fabrication or AI software, join Tesla!”
Tesla Korea had posted the job listing a day earlier, seeking artificial intelligence (AI) chip design engineers. The company said the project involves developing AI chip architecture for what it hopes will become the world’s highest-level mass-produced AI chips with the largest production volume globally, and invited applications from candidates with expertise in AI chip development.
Applicants are required to submit descriptions of the three most challenging technical problems they have solved, according to the notice.
While Musk has previously shared Tesla-related hiring posts, it is unusual for him to explicitly single out semiconductor professionals in a specific country.
Industry observers view the move as part of Tesla’s broader effort to expand its semiconductor talent pool to bolster its AI hardware capabilities in technologies such as autonomous driving and humanoid robots.
Last year, Tesla signed a $16.5 billion contract with Samsung Electronics to manufacture its A16 chips. At the time, Musk said he would stay near Samsung’s fabrication facility in Taylor, Texas, to oversee production — a move widely interpreted as laying the groundwork for deeper involvement in semiconductor manufacturing.
Korea commands over 70 percent of the global memory chip market. Samsung Electronics operates as a fully integrated semiconductor maker, including foundry services and the System LSI division, which is in charge of chip design and development.
Source: Korea Times News
