This is something we will try to do and believe we can probably do: by the end of next year, achieving an annualized rate of about 1 gigawatt in space AI computing power. Then, from a vision standpoint, scaling up an order of magnitude each year. That is, in two and a half years, achieving an annualized 10 gigawatts in space. In three and a half years, perhaps 100 gigawatts. Then, depending on global chip manufacturing and TeraFab's progress, continuing to exceed that scale, reaching 1 tera
According to the executive statement, Nvidia has already committed to manufacturing its first-level chips using Intel’s facilities. Furthermore, Elon Musk has partnered with Intel’s engineering team to develop “TeraFab,” which is slated to become the largest chip manufacturing facility in the world.
Additionally, Musk’s two companies are already deeply intertwined through shared semiconductor fabrication at their joint TERAFAB facility in Austin, cross-company supply chain transactions, and Tesla’s $2 billion investment in xAI prior to the SpaceX-xAI merger.
Alphabet has placed an order with Intel for 3 million of its custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) for 2028. Intel has also joined Elon Musk's Terafab project to create chips for SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla.
Additionally, Musk’s two companies are already deeply intertwined through shared semiconductor fabrication at their joint TERAFAB facility in Austin, cross-company supply chain transactions, and Tesla’s $2 billion investment in xAI prior to the SpaceX-xAI merger.
That figure is anchored to xAI’s Grok platform and the Colossus supercomputer following the earlier merger. Elon Musk launches TERAFAB: The $25B Tesla-SpaceXAI chip factory that will rewire the AI industry
Additionally, Musk’s two companies are already deeply intertwined through shared semiconductor fabrication at their joint TERAFAB facility in Austin, cross-company supply chain transactions, and Tesla’s $2 billion investment in xAI prior to the SpaceX-xAI merger.
On June 11, 2026, Elon Musk is set to attend an online event hosted by chip equipment giant ASML Holding NV ASML, where he will discuss the Terafab superchip factory initiative.
Diamandis was even more certain, stating he believes the probability of Tesla merging into SpaceX is 100%, citing resource sharing and synergies between the two on Gigafactories and the TeraFab chip program as making a merger highly logical. On the hardware timeline, Shotwell expects SpaceX to launch its first dedicated AI satellite, "AI1," by the end of 2027. Before that, the company will deploy computing power on some Starlink broadband satellites for "canary" pilot tests t
The comments followed Musk's announcement a day earlier of plans to build "Terafab," an advanced AI chip complex in Austin. Led by Benchmark and EQT Ventures, the fundraise underscores surging investor appetite for space infrastructure bets as massive AI computing requirements strain terrestrial energy grids and data center capacity, even as space-based systems offer access to near-continuous solar power.
The two firms and Intel are partnering on Terafab to design, build, and scale up a new set of AI microchips for use in Tesla’s Optimus robots and trucks, as well as SpaceX’s planned orbital data centers.
And to get there, SpaceX needs to build the Terafab, which is designed to be 100 million square feet, which will be 10-times the scale of Tesla’s Gigafactory in Austin, Texas.
The estimates of how much it would cost to build his Terafab facility range between $55 billion to $119 billion. And not much is known about the cost to build what he says will be 1 million Starlink-mounted space-based data centers, which some say could require as many as 70 million – 100 million AI chips (to bypass the latency of earth-to-orbit transmission).
Space and Starlink Network: Providing radiation-hardened, high-performance core processors for SpaceX's Mars spacecraft, next-generation launch vehicles, and the Starlink satellite constellation.
Elon Musk is expected to put ASML's annual technology conference firmly on investors' radar on Thursday, as he appears virtually to discuss Terafab, his proposed semiconductor manufacturing venture aimed at supplying chips for Tesla TSLA and SpaceX.
The man behind SpaceX rival Blue Origin thinks data centers in space are “very realistic,” but he did sound uncertain on the timeline, which he viewed as “a little ambitious.” · There’s no question that Elon Musk wants his companies to move at light speed, whether we’re talking about the Terafab, the potential behind Optimus robots, or getting that orbital ...
Orbital data centers cannot launch ... together with Tesla and xAI, plans to build TeraFab, a dedicated semiconductor facility in Texas using Intel's 14A process technology....
Terafab is envisioned as a vertically integrated facility for advanced semiconductor manufacturing and packaging. The idea behind it is to close the supply chain gaps that currently plague the semiconductor industry, allowing Elon Musk’s companies ...
And SpaceX is partnering with Tesla to build the chipmaking facility that could be located in Grimes County. Terafab, as the project is called, would make chips for electric vehicles, humanoid robots and space-based data centers.