Tesla and SpaceX plan to jointly build a semiconductor factory in Grimes County, near Houston. The information was released by Elon Musk on Thursday (6), with the announcement of an initial investment of US$ 16.8 billion.
Named Terafab, the complex will have more than 100 million square feet of production area, equivalent to about 9.3 million square meters, according to SpaceX.
The companies estimate hiring at least 3,000 workers from Grimes and neighboring Brazos County.
Production will serve robots, vehicles and data centers
The unit will bring together manufacturing, packaging and testing of logic and memory components. The proposal is to concentrate different stages of production to reduce the time needed to develop and deploy new chips.
Part of the semiconductors will be destined for edge computing and inference applications. Among the planned equipment are the Optimus robots and the autonomous Cybercab vehicles, both from Tesla.
The project also includes high-power chips for the space data centers planned by SpaceX. The company intends to use satellites to perform tasks related to training and operating artificial intelligence models.
Documents presented by the company indicate that the total investment in the complex could reach US$ 119 billion over a construction divided into several stages.
Intel confirmed it will participate in the project but has not yet detailed the amount of its investment or which activities it will take on in the operation.
Residents question tax incentives
SpaceX said it will use water from the Gibbons Creek reservoir for industrial operations, instead of drawing the resource from local aquifers.
The announcement came after a public meeting held on Wednesday (5), attended by hundreds of residents. Participants questioned the tax incentives granted to the project and demanded more transparency about the agreement.
The Anderson-Shiro school district superintendent said the project could expand opportunities for the region. The administration also said it would monitor the use of the benefits and the impacts of the installation on students.
