Elon Musk unveils "Terafab," a chip factory plan for Tesla and SpaceX
Musk says Tesla and SpaceX will build their own chips because there simply won't be enough otherwise.
What was announced
At an event in downtown Austin, Texas on Saturday night, Elon Musk outlined a chip manufacturing plan for Tesla and SpaceX that he calls "Terafab."
"We either build the Terafab or we don't have the chips, and we need the chips, so we build the Terafab," Musk said.
The goal
- Chips supporting 100 to 200 gigawatts of computing power per year on Earth.
- Plus a terawatt of compute in space.
- A photo suggests the facility will be near Tesla's Austin headquarters and gigafactory.
Key caveats
- Musk gave no timeline.
- Neither Musk nor his companies have a background in semiconductor manufacturing.
- Building leading-edge chips is one of the hardest and most expensive industrial tasks in the world.
Why it matters
AI demand for chips has exploded. Tesla needs them for self-driving cars and Optimus robots, and SpaceX for Starlink. Musk doesn't want to depend only on suppliers like TSMC and Samsung.
Founder and editor-in-chief of Kurd Developers. Phone and tech news on YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.
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