Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, has announced that Tesla and SpaceX will jointly build advanced chip factories in Austin to support artificial intelligence, robotics and space-based computing.
The project will consist of two specialised semiconductor fabrication plants at one site.
“One fab will support Tesla’s vehicles and Optimus humanoid robots, while the other will produce chips designed for AI data centres in space,” Musk said during a presentation on the weekend.
The previous day, he announced plans to build ‘Terafab’, an advanced AI chip complex in Austin.
Musk is Chief Executive Officer and a major shareholder in both companies.
“Terafab will technically be two fabs, each making only one chip design,” he wrote in a post on his X social media site.
Musk said suppliers such as Samsung Electronics, TSMC and Micron Technology would remain critical partners, but demand from his companies could soon exceed global production capacity, according to Reuters.
“We either build the Terafab or we don’t have the chips,” he said, adding that current worldwide output would meet only a fraction of future needs.
Terafab will eventually produce one terawatt of computing capacity a year, compared with about half a terawatt currently generated across the United States, Musk said.
Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) shares closed US$12.34 (3.24%) lower at $367.96 on Friday (Saturday AEDT), capitalising the company at $1.15 trillion (A$1.63 trillion).
SpaceX is unlisted.
Musk's net wealth has been estimated as high as $850 billion.
