Billionaire Elon Musk announced a massive project to produce chips to power his companies, with production beginning at a facility in Austin.<\/p>\n
Musk called it \u201cthe most epic chip-building exercise in history by far.\u201d<\/p>\n
The \u201cTERAFAB\u201d project is a joint effort involving Tesla, SpaceX and xAI. Musk said the chips will be used in vehicles, Tesla\u2019s humanoid AI robots<\/a> and for projects in space, including solar-powered AI satellites.<\/p>\n Musk launched \u201cTERAFAB\u201d at an event inside the Seaholm power plant downtown on Saturday night. Bright beams of light projected from the building into the sky, prompting questions from Austinites<\/a> on social media.<\/p>\n Musk said the chip production was necessary to fuel his companies\u2019 growth. He shared an ambitious vision for the future powered by TERAFAB, including billions of robots and interplanetary travel.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to be a civilization that expands to the galaxy with spaceships, that anyone can go anywhere they want at any time,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd have a city on the moon, cities on Mars, populate the solar system and send spaceships to other star systems.\u201d<\/p>\n These projects require more chips \u201cthan all the chip manufacturers in the world combined can provide today,\u201d Tesla said in its TERAFAB announcement<\/a> on X. \u201cWe’re building TERAFAB to close the gap between today\u2019s chip production & the future’s demand \u2013 a future among the stars.\u201d<\/p>\n TERAFAB: the next step to becoming a galactic civilization<\/p>\n Together with @SpaceX<\/a> & @xAI<\/a>, we’re building the largest\u00a0chip manufacturing facility ever (1TW\/year) \u2013\u00a0combining logic, memory & advanced packaging under one roof.<\/p>\n To harness as much power as possible from the Sun, we\u2026 https:\/\/t.co\/QYfGR8XsJx<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Tesla (@Tesla) March 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Musk said his goal is to produce more than a terawatt<\/a>, or a trillion watts, of AI computing power per year.<\/p>\n \u201cThe current output of AI compute is roughly 20 gigawatts per year,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of the rest of the output from Earth is about 2% of what we need.\u201d<\/p>\n Musk also said Gov. Greg Abbott was in the audience Saturday. He thanked Abbott and the state of Texas for their support.<\/p>\n \u201cThanks Elon. Extraordinary event tonight,\u201d Abbott posted on X<\/a> afterward. \u201cYour vision is powerful and we are proud of all you do in Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n Musk didn\u2019t share concrete details about the project\u2019s footprint in Austin or the timeline for construction or production. KUT News has reached out to Tesla and SpaceX for answers.<\/p>\n Multiple job openings<\/a> under TERAFAB on Tesla\u2019s website show roles based in Austin and Palo Alto, California.<\/p>\n Austin Business Journal reported that the TERAFAB facility would be by the Tesla Gigafactory<\/a>, and that construction work was visible near the site last week.<\/p>\n