Tesla prepaid chip fee or consider purchasing chip foundry.

Tesla will pay for chips in advance to ensure the supply of key materials and also wants to buy a factory to ease the global chip shortage, according to people familiar with the matter.

Industry sources said Tesla was discussing proposals to ensure the supply of chips with suppliers from Taiwan, South Korea and the United States. Tesla's interest in buying a factory directly is still in its infancy, they say. Given the high cost, the acquisition itself is relatively difficult. Tesla needs the latest generation of chips, which are mainly made in Taiwan and South Korea.

The chip shortage is expected to cost the industry 5 per cent of sales this year, according to Fitch (Fitch), a rating agency. Some contract factories have begun to allow large customers to pay deposits in advance, which has been highly unusual in the past, and the flexibility to allocate capacity according to different customers' orders has long been the cornerstone of their profits.

Tesla showed interest in dabbling in components when he announced plans to produce his own batteries last year. The company already has an internal engineering team responsible for designing high-end semiconductors for autopilot.

"they will buy capacity at first, but they are actively considering buying their own contract factory," said Ambrose Conroy (Ambrose Conroy), founder and chief executive of Tesla supply chain consulting firm Seraph Consulting.

But most observers believe it is too far for carmakers such as Tesla to acquire and operate a chip factory. A cutting-edge laboratory requires up to $20 billion in investment, and the complexity of running such factories is notoriously difficult to master.

A senior Samsung executive said contractual arrangements would have to change as customers seek increasingly specialised and customized semiconductors. "given the current capacity shortages, Samsung is likely to hand over dedicated capacity to companies such as Tesla, which uses longer chip life cycles," said CW Chung, an analyst at Nomura.

The source said that the company has provided some of its production lines exclusively to customers and is open to further discussions.

Other carmakers have begun to sign contracts directly with contract manufacturers. People involved in the supply chain say the car group will make more direct deals with contract chipmakers. This means that they have to invest in in-house expertise, as well as special purchase agreements. "

This change is not just in the auto industry. Cisco said it had placed the money in the custody of a third party to retain the production capacity of an unidentified chip contract manufacturer.

This arrangement deviates from the traditional business model. "once you block some capacity for a customer, that flexibility disappears," says one semiconductor industry executive familiar with the business. "

TSMC is the world's largest contract chipmaker, with a gross profit margin of more than 50 per cent. For the company, profitability depends on its ability to cope with the capacity of many customers.

TSMC has long rejected requests to set aside dedicated capacity for any customers, making an exception only once in 2014.

Us carmakers are expected to co-operate more with smaller contract manufacturers such as UMC or its Taiwanese rival Lijing, because TSMC, which has strong bargaining power, is not interested in specific purchase agreements, a US official said.