{"id":218317,"date":"2026-03-24T16:49:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T16:49:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/218317\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T16:49:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T16:49:28","slug":"elon-musk-to-build-advanced-chip-factories-in-austin-texas-for-spacex-and-tesla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/218317\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk to build advanced chip factories in Austin, Texas, for SpaceX and Tesla"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This story was originally published on Manufacturing Dive<\/a>. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily Manufacturing Dive newsletter<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Elon Musk over the weekend announced plans<\/a> to build two semiconductor factories in Austin, Texas, that would supply advanced chips for SpaceX and Tesla.<\/p>\n

Musk\u2019s effort, known as Terafab<\/a>, aims to manufacture 1 trillion watts of computing power per year, he said during a live stream on his social media platform X. The factories are expected to make two kinds of chips: those designed for Tesla\u2019s cars and humanoid robots; and high-powered ones built for space.<\/p>\n

Following the announcement, Musk later clarified that there would be two chip fab<\/a>rication plants<\/a>\u00a0at the sprawling 100 million-square-foot<\/a> site. He did not disclose investment details during the half-hour presentation. However, several media outlets are valuing the project at nearly $25 billion.<\/a><\/p>\n

During the live stream, Musk underscored the lack of manufacturing capacity for chips that power artificial intelligence. He said the current global output of AI chips is roughly 20 gigawatts per year, representing about 2% of what his companies need to power the next generation of humanoid robots, reusable rockets and driverless vehicles.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re very grateful to our existing supply chain \u2014 to Samsung, [Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.], Micron and others \u2014 and we would like them to expand as quickly as they can, and we will buy all of their chips,\u201d Musk said. \u201cBut there\u2019s a maximum rate at which they\u2019re comfortable expanding, and that rate is much less than we would like.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need the chips, so we\u2019re going to build the Terafab,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The massive facility is expected to have all the equipment necessary to make and improve the chips under one roof. Musk said it\u00a0will be able to create lithography masks, build logic and memory chips, conduct testing, packaging and more in a single building. This will create an \u201cincredibly fast recursive loop for improving the chip design,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As Musk invests in Austin, other U.S. chip capacity is ramping up. TSMC recently finished construction of its second fab in Phoenix, Arizona<\/a>, with plans to conduct \u201chigh-volume\u201d manufacturing in the second half of 2027. The company has also begun construction on its third fab and is developing a fourth one. Intel\u2019s Albany, Ohio, plant<\/a>\u00a0is also under construction following a leadership change and multiple project delays.<\/p>\n

About 20% of the Terafab facility\u2019s annual output will be for \u201cterrestrial\u201d purposes, including chips for Tesla\u2019s Full Self-Driving and Optimus robots, according to the presentation. The remaining capacity will be for space applications, including orbital data centers.<\/p>\n

In late January, SpaceX filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission seeking approval for an \u201cOrbital Data Center System<\/a>.\u201d The project would create a constellation of a million satellites that harness the sun\u2019s energy to meet growing AI demand, PCMag reported.<\/a> It would dwarf SpaceX\u2019s existing Starlink infrastructure, which currently has over 9,600 satellites in Earth\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as the cost to orbit drops to a low number, it immediately makes extremely compelling sense to put AI in space,\u201d Musk said during his presentation, noting increased economies of scale and pushback from people over the environmental impacts of data centers.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody wants the thing in their backyard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Terafab is a joint venture between SpaceX, Tesla and xAI.<\/p>\n

Recommended Reading <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was originally published on Manufacturing Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,85144,8892,18023,2223,483,27],"class_list":["post-218317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-chip-design","tag-elon-musk","tag-humanoid-robots","tag-spacex","tag-tesla","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}