Musk Says Texas Terafab Could Match GDP of Top 20 Countries

what happened

Benzinga reports that Elon Musk is hiring for Terafab, a project being developed by Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Tesla Inc. in Texas. Musk said the facility’s eventual output could be comparable with the economies of some of the world’s largest countries. On Sunday, he promoted a recruitment post on X, writing: “The value of the output of this massive structure will rank in the top 20 of country GDPs!”

SpaceX and Tesla unveiled Terafab earlier this year as a single site for logic chips, memory and advanced packaging. SpaceX says the companies’ combined requirement exceeds 1 terawatt of computing annually. Its prospectus states that Intel Corp. joined the initiative in April, bringing capabilities in chip design, fabrication and packaging. The office of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says the first stage will involve more than $16.8 billion in investment and 3,000 jobs. Texas has also granted SpaceX $30 million through the Texas Enterprise Fund.

The facility is intended to make chips for Tesla’s Optimus humanoid robots and self-driving Cybercabs, along with processors for SpaceX’s proposed orbital data centers. SpaceX says the site could ultimately cover more than 100 million square feet. Musk has estimated that about 75% of Terafab’s eventual AI computing capacity would serve SpaceX spacecraft and 25% would go to Optimus. Speaking by livestream on Saturday at the X Takeover event outside Tesla’s Austin gigafactory, he acknowledged that he lacks chip-factory experience: “I currently have no idea how to make microchips, we’ll figure it out.” He said the effort could require quite a few years, while arguing that his companies might eventually make chips better than anyone. Reuters reported last week that Tesla and SpaceX plan to construct and run the complex, with Intel remaining involved and TSMC potentially leasing space at the site. The project is designed to bring manufacturing, packaging and testing under one roof, shortening development cycles.

why it matters

Terafab would tie Tesla’s robot and robotaxi programs to SpaceX’s space-computing ambitions while giving Musk’s companies more control over chip supply. Manufacturing capacity is becoming increasingly central to Tesla’s AI strategy.

instruments