Elon Musk says his companies, not Taiwan’s chipmaker TSMC, will build and run the planned Terafab chip plant in Texas. Replying on X to a post that said TSMC would likely own and run the plant, he wrote “we will build and run the fab,” on Wednesday, October 7, Reuters reported. Reuters describes the plan as Tesla’s and SpaceX’s.
What about TSMC
Musk ruled out an operating role for TSMC. Bloomberg reported that he said TSMC could sublease part of the Terafab, but nothing more than that. TSMC did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters or Bloomberg. Bloomberg also reported that Intel’s chief executive, Lip-Bu Tan, said Intel will stay involved in the project, and that TSMC is weighing a large new campus in Texas, according to the Taipei Times, which carried the Bloomberg text.
Where the project stands
Tesla and SpaceX chose Grimes, Texas, as the site, Fox Business reported in August, with SpaceX estimating an initial phase of about $16.8 billion. The plant is meant to make chips for Tesla’s Optimus robots, its Cybercabs and for data centers in space.
Our take: Musk has settled who he says will run the plant, not whether it will work. A fab is a factory that makes computer chips, and running one is a very different job from designing them. If Tesla and SpaceX run it themselves, they carry the cost and the risk. If TSMC takes a share, it brings chipmaking experience. TSMC has not yet commented, and what we have is a site, SpaceX’s first-phase estimate and Musk’s own words. Plans of this size take years, as we noted in our earlier report on Musk’s plan to make chips in Texas. A statement from TSMC would be the clearest sign of where the talks stand.
