Elon Musk is calling it the “most valuable building on Earth by far.”
SpaceX on Thursday released several renderings — complete with panoramas and wide angles — of Terafab, the 100-million-square-foot semiconductor factory it’s building in rural Texas.
The imaginings, which could change, feature a futuristic, Star Wars-like roadway attached to what appears to be the factory, which itself is split into four massive, rectangular-shaped buildings.
In a press release, SpaceX said the chips the factory plans to produce will be used in space-based data centers and robotaxis.
“Terafab will be epic in both its mission and in its sheer size, designed to build new compute at an unprecedented scale and speed,” the company said.
SpaceX said the “initial phase” of Terafab will cost $16.8 billion. Potential future expansions at the site could drive that already jaw-dropping total “much higher,” the company said.
Spending such huge amounts on the infrastructure required to power the AI revolution has made many investors, who are still waiting to realize returns on their investments, uneasy. Mega-cap stocks like Google and Meta have seen sell-offs as they continue to spend extravagantly on AI.
In Terafab’s case, SpaceX is seeking to establish a reliable chip source — semiconductors are almost entirely produced by a handful of companies in East Asia — capable of handling the massive amounts of compute required by space-based data centers.
During a local meeting in Grimes County on Wednesday, Riley Trettel, the factory’s lead developer, said SpaceX is “moving nearly immediately to get going on the project.”
Jordan Buss, the senior director of environment, health, safety, and medical for SpaceX, said during the meeting that the factory is essential for the United States to compete in the AI race.
“This is something that is strategically vital for the United States, and for, I would argue, Western Civilization,” he said. “America faces a clear and urgent challenge with the offshoring of manufacturing.”
Nearly 900 residents of Grimes County signed a petition calling for more community oversight of large AI infrastructure projects, like the Terafab facility, that receive public incentives.
SpaceX agreed to pay the county $20 million every year, or about 78% of what it would have paid in property taxes, SpaceX attorney Bucky Brannen said at the meeting.
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