The foundations have been laid for what has been described as the world’s largest building, according to Elon Musk – the 100-million-sq-ft Terafab project, a semiconductor factory in Texas being built on behalf of Space X and Tesla.
If completed at the scale promised, the Terafab would beat the world’s biggest building now, the AvtoVAZ vehicle manufacturing plant in Tolyatti, Russia, which measures 65 million sq ft.
Tesla currently has a 10-million-sq-ft gigafactory in Texas, completed in 2022.
A press release from Texas governor Greg Abbott states that the first phase of the Terafab will cost $16.7bn and will consolidate manufacturing, packaging and testing of advanced logic and memory devices.
The goal is to increase semiconductor manufacturing to meet future chip needs. 3,000 people will be employed on site.
Musk said on X (formerly Twitter) that the facility would be the world’s biggest building and the “most valuable”.
Future phases are currently unpriced. No contractor has been named on the project.
Water from the Gibbons Creek Reservoir water will be used at the Terafab.
The future demand for chips by SpaceX and Tesla is, according to a press release from Space X, predicted to exceed 1 terawatt of compute, which would eclipse the current global supply.
Greg Abbott, Texas governor, said: “Texas is where big ideas grow even bigger. I congratulate SpaceX on this significant expansion of their investment in our great state.
“The first-of-its-kind Terafab facility will accelerate chip production in Texas at an unprecedented scale, create thousands of good-paying jobs in Grimes County, and expand economic opportunity for generations of Texans across Southeast Texas and beyond.”
Elon Musk, Space X chief executive, said: “In addition to our headquarters in Starbase, Texas, where Starship is being developed and launched, and our Starlink factory in Bastrop, Texas, where our high-speed internet kits are manufactured for millions of Starlink customers all around the world.”
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