Elon Musk’s new Terafab project aims to produce a terawatt of AI chips annually, a joint venture by Tesla and SpaceX to meet their soaring computing demands
WASHINGTON: Elon Musk has announced a bold new venture to manufacture artificial intelligence chips for use in space, robotics, and data centres.
The project, named ‘Terafab’, will be a joint operation between his companies Tesla and SpaceX.
Musk revealed the manufacturing facility will be based near Austin, Texas.
Its ambitious goal is to produce one terawatt of computing power per year.
A terawatt is equivalent to one trillion watts, slightly less than the total power generation capacity of the entire United States.
Musk stated the project is necessary because the computing demands of Tesla and SpaceX are expected to far outstrip global chip supply.
“We’re very grateful to our existing supply chain, to Samsung, TSMC, Micron, and others… but there’s a maximum rate at which they’re comfortable expanding,” Musk said.
“That rate is much less than we would like… and we need the chips, so we’re going to build the Terafab.”
He did not disclose the initial investment required.
Previous US media reports have estimated the figure to be between USD 20 billion and USD 25 billion.
The ‘advanced technology fab’ in Austin will design, manufacture, test, and improve each chip.
The long-term aim is to support 100 to 200 gigawatts of computing power on Earth and a full terawatt in space.
Musk did not provide a specific timeline for when the Terafab would achieve this output.
He has previously promised grand results from other projects on highly compressed schedules.
Musk said the ultimate purpose of the Terafab is to help humanity become a “galactic civilisation”.
This would involve harnessing the resources of other planets and stars.
