Musk sets aspirational 2028 target for Terafab chip production
Elon Musk said on a SpaceX earnings call that Terafab, the chip-manufacturing joint venture of SpaceX and Tesla, plans to commission equipment in the first half of 2027 and produce its first working SRAM test chip around May or June at its Austin R&D site. The company targets volume production in the third or fourth quarter of 2028 at a planned Texas facility designed to fabricate logic and memory chips and conduct advanced packaging and testing. The project also has an annual goal of 1 terawatt of computing capacity for AI and robotics. Musk described the schedule as highly aspirational, with significant uncertainty, while saying ASML and other critical equipment suppliers are expediting shipments.
The project would provide an internal chip source for AI computing and robotics, including Tesla's Optimus robots. Its significance depends on whether Terafab can overcome major semiconductor-equipment procurement and execution challenges and meet an unusually aggressive schedule; the 1-terawatt capacity figure remains a target questioned by experts.