Two particular lines in Elon Musk’s posts about Tesla’s new chip deal highlight just how far his “founder mode” approach extends. In this case, right down to his stated terms of Tesla’s manufacturing agreement with Samsung.
In a $16.5 billion deal, Samsung will produce Tesla’s new AI6 chip from the manufacturing plant it is building in Taylor, Texas, which is expected to open in 2026.
Located outside of Austin, Samsung’s plant is close to where Musk moved in 2020, and where his company Tesla later moved in 2021. In an X post, Musk wrote that he would personally monitor the plant’s activity.
“This is a critical point, as I will walk the line personally to accelerate the pace of progress,” Musk wrote. “And the fab is conveniently located not far from my house.”
In other words — “founder mode.”
Musk also wrote that Samsung “agreed to allow Tesla to assist in maximizing manufacturing efficiency.”
The Tesla CEO wrote that the deal, which Bloomberg first reported, was one of “strategic importance” for the automaker. Neither Tesla nor Samsung responded to a request for comment.
Musk has long been known for taking a founder-mode approach to running his companies, an in-the-details entrepreneurial mindset that has flourished in Silicon Valley. He famously slept on the factory floor during Tesla’s Model 3. He personally renamed and reorganized an entire company when taking over Twitter, now X, and he set up shop in D.C. during his DOGE era.
The term “founder mode” itself, though, is newer.
Its origins stem from a 2024 talk that Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky gave for the startup accelerator Y Combinator. In it, he advised against the common principle that leaders of large-scale companies should hire good employees and give them space to do their job.
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In a September essay titled “Founder Mode,” YC cofounder Paul Graham reflected on Chesky’s talk, writing that there are “things founders can do that managers can’t.” Graham coined the term “founder mode,” describing leaders of big companies who work on the ground across the company, delving into the details at a granular level, and not just via their direct reports.
Chesky later embraced the mantra named after his talk, along with much of Silicon Valley. Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke wrote on X that “we need founder mode companies in all industries.”
In his essay, Graham thanked a variety of tech leaders for reading early drafts, including YC CEO Garry Tan, venture capitalist Ron Conway, and Musk himself.
While the terms Musk describes for Tesla’s manufacturing deal and his plans to personally walk the Samsung assembly line are very “founder mode,” he’s not the only CEO keeping a close eye on a company’s supply chain.
Tim Cook rose through the ranks at Apple before becoming CEO by closely managing Apple’s supply chain. The iPhone giant famously keeps a very close eye on its manufacturing partners, many of which are in China.
A United airport sign photographed in 2019 and confirmed to be legitimate by the airline revealed that Apple was buying 50 business class seats a day for its employees to travel from San Francisco to Shanghai, a travel hub connecting to Zhengzhou and Shenzhen, which have been called “iPhone cities.” The iPhone maker is also known for having a broad team of operations overseers.
Samsung’s new chip deal with Tesla marks a major win for its foundry business. As of 1 p.m. in New York, the company’s stock price was up 6.8%.
And while Tesla’s assembly line workers have experienced Elon Musk’s founder mode approach, it sounds like soon Samsung’s will too.
