Musk’s Terafab joint venture aims for 2028 chip production volume
Elon Musk said the SpaceX-Tesla chip venture Terafab targets volume production by Q3 2028, with a first test chip expected in mid-2027. He cautioned the timeline is 'very aggressive' and acknowledged challenges in securing ASML equipment. Intel has joined the project; TSMC has held talks.
Elon Musk said on a SpaceX conference call on Tuesday that the chip manufacturing joint venture between SpaceX and Tesla, called Terafab, aims to reach volume production by the third quarter of 2028. Musk put “big error bars” on the timeline because, he said, “we don’t know if we will actually achieve this or not.”
The project is designed to produce 1 terawatt a year of computing power for artificial intelligence and robotics. Musk described the schedule as “very aggressive.” In the United States, cutting-edge logic factories can take three or more years to build. Musk has described the planned complex in Texas as combining advanced manufacturing, packaging and testing of both advanced logic and memory chips in one facility.
Internally, Terafab aims to have a first test chip, using static random-access memory (SRAM) circuits, functional in roughly May or June of next year at the Terafab research facility in Austin. Chip manufacturers commonly fabricate SRAM circuits as a method of refining manufacturing process development.
Musk has a history of setting timelines that his companies have missed. He described the Terafab timeline as the company’s aspiration and said the dates are “very aggressive.” “Let’s just say that outcome of achieving volume production is at least in the set of possible outcomes for Q3 or Q4 of ’28,” Musk said. “So these are obviously like insanely fast time frames for chip production.”
On the conference call, a sell-side analyst asked whether SpaceX had placed orders for the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machines produced only by the Dutch company ASML. The EUV machines are necessary to produce the most cutting-edge chips. Musk did not answer the question directly and said, “Now these were very aggressive dates, and we’re very appreciative of ASML and all of our other suppliers in accelerating equipment deliveries in order to achieve this outcome.” One of the challenges Terafab faces is acquiring enough of the complex, expensive semiconductor manufacturing equipment from ASML or American suppliers such as Applied Materials and KLA.
Intel said in April that it would join the Terafab project to help accelerate Terafab’s goals. Intel also posted a photo of CEO Lip-Bu Tan and Musk shaking hands, saying it hosted Musk at its campus that month. The companies have not revealed how the collaboration would function in practice. Earlier this month, Musk said there had been discussions about potential cooperation with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest advanced chip manufacturer, but later said Terafab is committed to running the facility itself.