Elon Musk은 ASML 등 핵심 반도체 장비 공급업체들이 Terafab을 위한 출하를 앞당기고 있다고 밝혔으며, Tesla와 SpaceX는 텍사스에서 대량 칩 생산을 목표로 하고 있다.
Elon Musk says ASML and other critical semiconductor equipment suppliers have expedited shipments for Terafab, the ambitious semiconductor manufacturing facility supporting his aggressive timeline for the joint megaproject between Tesla and SpaceX. He made the announcement during a live broadcast of SpaceX's Q3 2026 earnings call on X on October 20. Musk also said the company is targeting volume chip production at the project's primary facility in Gibbons Creek, Texas, by the third or fourth quarter of 2028, emphasizing that the timeline is highly aspirational and carries "big error bars."
"These are very aggressive dates, and we're very appreciative of ASML and all of our other suppliers in accelerating equipment deliveries in order to achieve this outcome," said Musk, CEO of both companies behind Terafab. SpaceX plans to manufacture its first experimental test chip at its research fabrication facility in Austin, Texas, around Q2 2027.
Beyond Terafab, Musk outlined near-term ambitions for his AI companies during the broadcast. He expects them to have 2.5 to 3 gigawatts (GW) of computing capacity active by the end of 2026. He also said he is highly confident about bringing an incremental 10 GW online in 2027, and that he "would be surprised" if they did not reach a total of 13 GW of AI compute by the end of 2027. By comparison, the next-largest project by planned capacity, the now-restructured 10 GW Project Stargate, was expected to reach full capacity in the 2030s, and Meta's 5 GW Hyperion has a similar timeline. To reach the 13 GW milestone, Musk said SpaceX and xAI are aggressively procuring upcoming next-generation NVIDIA architecture, including plans to bring a 440,000-GPU Nvidia "Vera Rubin" training cluster online by the end of Q2 2027.
Turning back to Terafab, Musk also boasted that once fully scaled and operational, the commercial value of the facility's advanced chip output would place it within the top 20 global country GDPs, from a single physical building. For context, the 20th country on that list is Switzerland, with a GDP of around $1.14 trillion. Terafab is a planned multi-billion-dollar, vertically integrated chip factory in Texas with an ambitious goal of manufacturing 1 terawatt (TW) of AI computing power per year. The facility will bring logic, memory, and advanced packaging together in one place. Its massive planned output has required collaboration across the semiconductor supply chain. Terafab will use traditional extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography systems built on Intel's 14A manufacturing node technology.
Intel officially joined the Terafab venture in April 2026 to help co-develop and refactor silicon fabrication technology, providing access to its state-of-the-art 14A manufacturing process. ASML, the world's sole commercial supplier of the $400 million EUV lithography systems required for high-volume, leading-edge chip production, is perhaps the project's most critical partner. According to unofficial sources, Terafab's first EUV tool was reportedly slated for delivery in mid-2027. It remains unclear whether this is the expedited timeline Musk referred to in the broadcast.
Other major suppliers include American equipment manufacturers Applied Materials, Lam Research, and KLA Corporation, as well as Japan's Tokyo Electron. These companies will provide front-end processing, metrology, and process control machinery. Tesla and SpaceX are also in talks with about 10 South Korean equipment makers, including Hanmi Semiconductor, known for advanced packaging equipment, and HPSP, a manufacturer of high-pressure hydrogen annealing equipment, as well as firms supplying specialized piping components and process valves.
Musk's announcement states that several of these suppliers are expediting supply to Terafab, even as capacity remains tight across the semiconductor supply chain. The facility aims to mitigate future shortfalls in cutting-edge AI processors from external foundries such as TSMC. It will supply chips for Musk's xAI clusters, self-driving vehicles, Optimus humanoid robots, and SpaceX's orbital AI data center, as well as the broader AI industry.
However, many experts have questioned the feasibility of Musk's 1 TW Terafab ambition. For context, research firm Gartner estimates that total global AI-optimized data center capacity is roughly 44 GW as of late 2026, or 4.4% of Terafab's planned output. Meanwhile, global AI computing capacity has grown by roughly 3.3x to 3.4x per year since 2022, according to EpochAI.