Elon Musk has introduced the Terafab venture, a three way partnership between Tesla, SpaceX and xAI, to construct the “largest chip manufacturing facility ever.” In his standard grandiose vogue, Musk claims Terafab is the following step in direction of harnessing the facility of the solar and making a “galactic civilization.”

Musk, CEO of all three firms, introduced plans for the Terafab in a livestream on X. Because the identify implies, the venture’s final objective is to provide a terawatt of computing energy every year in order that it may match the businesses’ rising demand for chips. Musk defined in the course of the livestream that he is grateful to present provide chain companions like Samsung, TSMC and Micron, however the present capability of chip producers solely provides as much as about two p.c to what Tesla and SpaceX wants when it comes to future computing energy wants.

“We both construct the Terafab or we do not have the chips,” Musk mentioned in the course of the occasion. “And we’d like the chips so we will construct the Terafab.”

The Terafab venture, estimated to price at the very least $20 billion, will begin with the Superior Expertise Fab in Austin, Texas, the place Tesla is already headquartered. Musk mentioned that the 2 forms of chips might be produced within the Terafab: one for terrestrial functions, wish to energy Full Self-Driving or Optimus robots, and one other extra high-powered, sturdy chip for use in area. If you happen to’re questioning what Musk has in retailer for area, the SpaceX CEO filed an utility with the Federal Communications Fee to launch 1,000,000 satellites to create an “orbital data center” earlier this yr. As promising as this sounds, it is value noting that Musk has beforehand overpromised and underdelivered on different tasks, just like the Hyperloop, a $40,000 Cybertruck and fully autonomous driving.