SpaceX may spend up to $119 billion on ‘Terafab’ chip factory in Texas

In Brief

SpaceX, Elon Musk’s abstraction institution that besides houses his AI company, xAI, is considering spending $55 billion, astatine slightest initially, to physique a semiconductor mill successful Grimes County, Texas, according to a proposal connected the region website.

The institution estimates it whitethorn walk a full of $119 cardinal connected the project, which would beryllium a “multi-phase, next-generation, vertically integrated semiconductor manufacturing and precocious computing fabrication facility,” according to the filing.

Musk has antecedently outlined plans for the project, dubbed “Terafab,” that volition besides spot Tesla contributing resources. The companies person roped chipmaking elephantine Intel into the effort, aiming to make chips for AI servers, satellites, SpaceX’s projected information halfway successful space, arsenic good arsenic autonomous Tesla vehicles and robots.

The billionaire has said the manufacturing installation will, sometime successful the future, manufacture capable chips to supply 1 Terawatt of powerfulness per year, arguing that semiconductor manufacturers aren’t making chips rapidly capable for his companies’ artificial quality and robotics needs. “We either physique the Terafab oregon we don’t person the chips, and we request the chips, truthful we physique the Terafab,” helium wrote.

However, Musk wrote successful a tweet connected Wednesday that Grimes County successful Texas was lone 1 of respective locations nether information for the factory.

The filing comes arsenic Musk has doubled down connected ensuring xAI has capable computing powerfulness disposable to bid and powerfulness its Grok bid of AI models. He’s besides intent connected capitalizing connected the request for AI compute by gathering information centers successful space, which helium has cited arsenic a large crushed for combining xAI with SpaceX. The combined entity is said to person a valuation of $1.25 trillion and is expected to spell nationalist successful June.

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