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Billionaire Elon Musk said Tesla and SpaceX will build an advanced chip center in Austin, Texas, to help power the two companies’ emerging technologies amid a chip shortage.
“Terafab will be two fabrics, each making only one chip design,” Musk wrote on Sunday in a post on X.
One of Terafab’s centers will focus on AI chips for Tesla’s electric cars and Optimus humanoid robots, while the other will focus on AI chips for space-based data centers made by SpaceX.
Musk said Terafab’s chips will be needed to meet his companies’ demand for more computing power than it can get from suppliers.
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Elon Musk said Terafab will focus on developing two chips: one for Tesla’s EVs and Optimus humanoid robots, and the other for SpaceX’s space-based data centers. (Aly Song/Reuters)
“Either we build Terafab or we don’t have chips,” Musk said during a speech at the Austin facility on Saturday, adding that current global chip production will meet only a fraction of his companies’ future needs.
Musk thanked the company’s existing chip suppliers, including Samsung, TSMC and Micron, but said his companies’ demand would eventually exceed the world’s total chip output, which would create a need for a new AI chip plant.
ALTMAN CALLS MUSK’S CURRENT DATA CENTER SYSTEMS ‘FANTASTIC’ FOR CURRENT AI COMPUTING NEEDS
| A ticker | Security | Finally | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TSLA | Company TESLA INC. | 380.85 | +12,89 |
+ 3.50% |
Musk also said that SpaceX’s AI chip for space-based data centers will need to have special features to withstand the environment in space and work as intended.
“We need a very powerful chip designed for space that takes into account the most difficult environment in space, where you have high energy, high energy ions, photons, you get the creation of electrons,” said Musk, adding that it will need to work at high temperatures.
“It’s a hostile environment in space,” Musk explained. “You want to use it for space, and you want to run it hotter than you would use a chip on Earth to reduce the size of the radiator.”
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Musk expects Terafab to significantly increase production of AI chips and computing power. (Marc Piasecki/Getty Images)
Musk did not provide a timeline for the new project. Musk has a history of announcing ambitious projects, though a few have faced delays or collapses.
Terafab will eventually produce one terawatt of computing capacity per year, compared to half a terawatt currently produced in the US, Musk said.
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Reuters contributed to this report.
