{"id":2183668,"date":"2026-10-07T02:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2183668"},"modified":"2026-10-07T02:25:00","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T23:25:00","slug":"spacex-and-tesla-are-building-a-massive-new-factory-and-heres-what-itll-make","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2183668","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX And Tesla Are Building A Massive New Factory, And Here&#8217;s What It&#8217;ll Make"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"columns-holder\">\n<div class=\"add-on-google-widget\">\n<div class=\"add-on-google-heading\">Add Jalopnik on Google:<\/div>\n<div class=\"add-on-google-buttons-row\">\n                    <button type=\"button\" class=\"add-on-google-btn\" id=\"preferred-source\">Preferred Source<\/button><br \/>\n                    <a href=\"https:\/\/profile.google.com\/cp\/Cg0vZy8xMXBneTRxX2Zw\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"add-on-google-btn\" id=\"google-discover\">Google Discover<\/a>\n                <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"columns-holder \">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The new factory planned for Grimes County, Texas, about 70 miles northwest of Houston, has been dubbed Terafab and, as the name suggests, it will fabricate semiconductor chips.\u00a0On the company website, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacex.com\/sites\" target=\"_blank\">SpaceX<\/a>\u00a0describes the facility as &#8220;an advanced semiconductor lab.&#8221; In addition, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/media-telecom\/spacex-says-terafab-be-built-texas-with-initial-investment-168-billion-2026-08-06\/\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a>\u00a0reporting, SpaceX broke ground in April on a research facility at its Gigafactory in Austin, a precursor to Terafab.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The idea behind the facility is to provide vertical integration of advanced computing hardware needed for SpaceX, and to put that fabrication close to SpaceX&#8217;s Starbase launch facility in Brownsville. According to a statement by Elon Musk, the chairman and CEO of SpaceX, given to the <a href=\"https:\/\/gov.texas.gov\/news\/post\/governor-abbott-announces-spacex-expansion-in-grimes-county\" target=\"_blank\">Texas governor&#8217;s office in August<\/a>, the location in Grimes County works well because the state is already home to the manufacture of Starlink satellite dishes. Musk noted that the motive behind the plant \u2013 which, at 100 million square feet,\u00a0will be one of the largest manufacturing plants in the world.\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/autos-transportation\/intel-join-musks-terafab-mega-ai-chip-project-2026-04-07\/\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a> reported in April that the chipsets will support Tesla&#8217;s cars and Tesla&#8217;s Optimus robots.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In May, SpaceX filed an <a href=\"https:\/\/grimescountytx.govoffice.com\/vertical\/Sites\/%7B958238D0-27E6-4F6C-919E-F1D98542C5FD%7D\/uploads\/SpaceX_-_Grimes_County_-_30_Day_Notice_of_Tax_Abatement_(proposed_for_posting_by_May_4_for_June_3_meeting)(1).pdf\" target=\"_blank\">application<\/a> with Grimes County stating the company would invest $55 billion to manufacture the Terafab, with a contingency to invest as much as $119 billion.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Intel is proud to join the Terafab project with <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SpaceX?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\">@SpaceX<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/xai?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\">@xAI<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Tesla?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\">@Tesla<\/a> to help refactor silicon fab technology.<\/p>\n<p>Our ability to design, fabricate, and package ultra-high-performance chips at scale will help accelerate Terafab&#8217;s aim to produce 1 TW\/year of compute to power&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2vUmXn0YhH\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/2vUmXn0YhH<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Intel (@intel) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/intel\/status\/2041501301318766866?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\">April 7, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Earlier this year, SpaceX \u2060partnered with Intel, which Intel announced on X in April. That partnership was meant to help &#8220;refactor silicon fab technology.&#8221; However, on October 3, in a comment on X, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/wholemars\/status\/2106283316479672489?s=20\" target=\"_blank\">Musk<\/a> confirmed Taiwan&#8217;s TSMC is also in discussions with SpaceX about a partnership at the giant Terafab project. Yes, it can be a bit hard to follow.\u00a0As is the idea that SpaceXAI is now \u2014 maybe \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/2278279\/why-spacex-rebranding-ai-artificial-intelligence-vs-super-intelligence\/\" target=\"_blank\">being rebranded as SpaceXSI<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"columns-holder \">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Terafab Texas will be the largest and most valuable building on Earth by far.<\/p>\n<p>And it will be stunningly beautiful. Sir <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/elonmusk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\">@elonmusk<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/vS2YKgFmAn\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/vS2YKgFmAn<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Terafab (@TerafabCorp) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TerafabCorp\/status\/2087502774141395389?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\">August 12, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">An in-depth filing in Grimes County in June triggered outrage at a public hearing about the project, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/business\/media-telecom\/spacex-wins-texas-county-approval-reinvestment-zone-tied-terafab-chip-facility-2026-06-03\/\" target=\"_blank\">Reuters<\/a>&#8216; reporting. The filing noted that the Terafab will draw water from the nearby Gibbons\u00a0Creek Reservoir, and power will be provided by natural gas generators. This comes amid a national data center backlash over how data centers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/2103714\/ai-data-center-demand-chip-shortage-auto-manufacturing\/\" target=\"_blank\">may cause a new chip shortage<\/a>, as well as concerns about pollution and water usage. In April. the <a href=\"https:\/\/naacp.org\/articles\/naacp-sues-xai-illegal-pollution-data-center-power-plant\" target=\"_blank\">NAACP<\/a> sued xAI and its subsidiary, MZX Tech, over the operation of polluting methane gas turbines in\u00a0Southaven, Mississippi, that power the Colossus 2 data center, which is used to support the chatbot, Grok.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Nonetheless, Grimes County gave the massive SpaceX project a\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.gccrd.org\/SpaceX-Deal-Summary\/\" target=\"_blank\">100% property tax abatement<\/a> in exchange for a $10 million down payment and a subsequent annual $20 million payment for 35 years. And at least for the moment, it looks like the project is going forward \u2014 it&#8217;s now visible on Google Maps. But that doesn&#8217;t mean the kerfuffle is finished. Last week, Democratic nominee for Texas Governor and State Representative <a href=\"https:\/\/ginafortexas.com\/2026\/09\/new-hinojosa-calls-for-release-of-greg-abbotts-correspondence-with-elon-musk\/\" target=\"_blank\">Gina Hinojosa<\/a> filed a public information request for the unredacted release of correspondence between Republican Governor Greg Abbott&#8217;s office and Elon Musk and his companies. Hinojosa accuses Abbott of interfering on behalf of Musk and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jalopnik.com\/2138420\/spacex-earth-valuable-private-company\/\" target=\"_blank\">funneling grant funding to Earth&#8217;s most valuable private company<\/a>. The Terafab received a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kltv.com\/2026\/09\/30\/terafab-site-takes-shape-elon-musks-companies-face-growing-transparency-questions\/\" target=\"_blank\">$1.66 billion state tax break<\/a>, and Hinojosa accuses Abbott&#8217;s office of dirty dealing, saying this was in exchange for Musk donating $500,000 to Abbott&#8217;s reelection campaign.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Add Jalopnik on Google: Preferred Source Google Discover The new factory planned for Grimes County, Texas, about 70 miles northwest of Houston, has been dubbed Terafab and, as the name suggests, it will fabricate semiconductor chips.\u00a0On the company website, SpaceX\u00a0describes the facility as &#8220;an advanced semiconductor lab.&#8221; In addition, according to Reuters\u00a0reporting, SpaceX broke ground [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,247],"class_list":["post-2183668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-jalopnik-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2183668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2183668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2183668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2183668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2183668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}