{"id":409697,"date":"2026-08-18T10:44:22","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T10:44:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/409697\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T10:44:22","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T10:44:22","slug":"giga-texas-explore-elon-musks-tesla-compound-from-above","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/409697\/","title":{"rendered":"Giga Texas: Explore Elon Musk\u2019s Tesla compound from above"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"serif-copy text-width mb-md\">Gigafactory Texas is perhaps best known for its massive main building, the one with solar panels on the roof spelling out \u201cTESLA.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"serif-copy text-width mb-md\">To be sure, most of the work done in that building \u2014 assembling electric vehicles \u2014 is what people think of when they drive by the factory that opened in 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"serif-copy text-width mb-md\">That is not what CEO Elon Musk wants, though.<\/p>\n<p class=\"serif-copy text-width mb-md\">In that building and others across the campus, 16,500 employees are focused on building EVs, batteries, driver-assistance technology \u2014 and new production lines and facilities for other products the CEO says will define the company\u2019s future in artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous vehicles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"serif-copy text-width mb-md\">Musk says the plant will soon have a line with annual capacity for 10 million humanoid robots known as Optimus. And, as Tesla speeds into the semiconductor business with its massive Terafab project, a new facility now under construction at Gigafactory Texas will <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/business\/article\/terafab-austin-elon-musk-tesla-spacex-22091260.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">conduct chip refining<\/a>\u00a0and packaging for the project.<\/p>\n<p class=\"serif-copy text-width mb-md\">At its grand opening \u201cCyber Rodeo\u201d event, Musk <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expressnews.com\/business\/article\/Tesla-Austin-gigafactory-cybertruck-17067482.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">boasted that<\/a>\u00a0with more than 10 million square feet of factory floor, Gigafactory Texas was three times the size of the Pentagon. Over time, he said, it would represent an investment of more than $10 billion, generating at least 20,000 direct jobs and 100,000 more created by suppliers and other related businesses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"serif-copy text-width mb-md\">But what, exactly, is Tesla doing on the 2,500-acre campus now?<\/p>\n<p class=\"serif-copy text-width mb-md\">Chief, of course, is making EVs and the batteries that power them. It is one of four Tesla plants building the Model Y, the world\u2019s best-selling car. It also builds Cybertruck and is ramping up production of Cybercab, the company\u2019s purpose-built robotaxi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"serif-copy text-width mb-md\">Now, as the world\u2019s most valuable automaker shifts its focus, here is a look at some of the critical facilities \u2013 both existing and planned \u2013 at the sprawling site that also contains its headquarters.<\/p>\n<p class=\"serif-copy text-width mb-md\">Tesla didn&#8217;t respond to requests for interviews or visits to the site, which has a reputation for being so private that a lawyer representing the company recently referred to it as \u201c<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.statesman.com\/business\/article\/tesla-gigafactory-texas-arbitration-assault-suit-22198429.php\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">essentially Fort Knox.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"serif-copy text-width mb-md\">This overview has been pieced together through information in public records, regular visits near the plant and information from other sources.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"logo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/statesman-square-black.png\"\/>Start your day with the stories you need to know from Austin&#8217;s most trusted news source.<\/p>\n<p class=\"note-text newsletter-module--disclaimer--a6b05\">This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google <a href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/privacy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Privacy Policy<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/policies.google.com\/terms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Terms of Service<\/a> FALSE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gigafactory Texas is perhaps best known for its massive main building, the one with solar panels on the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-409697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409697","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=409697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}