Elon Musk’s team has reportedly begun reaching out to the world’s biggest chip suppliers to build a “gigantic” factory of his own. The project, dubbed Terafab, is an ambitious AI chip complex involving both Tesla and SpaceX. According to reports from Bloomberg, Musk’s staff have spent the last few weeks contacting major industry players to get the project moving at “light speed.”Why Elon Musk is reaching out to chip makersTo build a factory this size, Musk needs the best tools in the business. His team has reportedly approached several “heavy hitters” in the semiconductor industry, including Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron and Lam Research. These companies provide the specialised machinery needed to print circuits onto silicon.Other partners include Samsung Electronics and Intel. Bloomberg reported that Musk’s team has specifically asked the South Korean giant for support as a manufacturing partner.
Meanwhile, Intel confirmed last week that it would join the project to help make the processors that will power Musk’s robotics and data centre ambitions.Musk is famous for his aggressive timelines – as seen from previous reports during his overhauling of Twitter – and Terafab appears to be no different. Staff have reportedly been asking for “speedy” price estimates for everything from cleaning devices and testers to etchers and depositors.
The report also said that the team has been providing very little information about the final products they are building, keeping the exact specifications of the chips a closely guarded secret. The ultimate goal is to begin manufacturing silicon by 2029 and scale up rapidly from there.
Why Elon Musk wants to build a ‘Terafab’
The decision to build a factory – located on the Tesla campus in Austin, Texas – stems from a simple math problem. At a Tesla meeting last year, Musk explained that even in a best-case scenario, current suppliers like TSMC and Samsung wouldn’t be able to produce the volume of chips Tesla needs for its AI5 (fifth-generation) chips.“It’s like giga but way bigger. I can’t see any other way to get to the volume of chips that we’re looking for. It’s got to be done,” Musk said when describing the project.The chips that will be built in the factory will be the “brains” behind Tesla’s most advanced tech, including the Full Self-Driving (FSD) software. By building his own “Terafab,” Musk aims to secure his own supply chain and ensure that his ambitions for AI and robotics aren’t held back by global chip shortages.
