Introducing Terafab, Elon Musk's Latest Mega Project Worth Rp423.5 Trillion!

Founder of Tesla, Elon Musk, has launched a new chip manufacturing project named Terafab. The project is a joint venture between Tesla, SpaceX, and the artificial intelligence company xAI.

According to Yahoo Finance, Terafab is designed to combine the entire semiconductor production chain in one location, from chip design, fabrication, memory production, to packaging processes.

The facility will be built at the North Campus of Giga Texas in Austin, with a size said to surpass the current Giga Texas complex, which is already one of the largest buildings in the world.

From an investment perspective, Musk estimates the initial needs for this project at US$20 billion to US25billion, orapproximatelyRp423.5trillion(assuminganexchangerateofRp16, 942/US). He also emphasised that Tesla’s 2026 capital expenditure does not yet include the costs of Terafab.

The formation of Terafab, according to Elon Musk, is necessary because he believes there is no global chip manufacturer that meets the chip requirements for his companies’ AI and robotics development.

“We have to build Terafab or we won’t have the chips, and we need the chips, so we’re building Terafab,” said Elon Musk, quoted from Yahoo Finance, Tuesday (24/3/2026).

“There is a maximum level at which they feel comfortable expanding. That level is far lower than what we want,” he said.

Elon Musk also claimed that the current AI computational output is approximately 20 gigawatts per year and that the world’s other output is about 2% of what his companies need.

Terafab targets two main types of chips: edge inference processors optimised for Tesla’s Full Self-Driving systems, Optimus humanoid robots, and Robotaxi fleet, and high-power variants resistant to space environments, supporting SpaceX satellites, orbital data centres, and xAI initiatives.