1 Terawatt of AI chips – Elon Musk wants to build the largest chip factory
More AI computing power, primarily in space, is to be provided by the Terafab. It is intended to combine almost all steps of semiconductor manufacturing.
An image of the future Terafab, presumably created with AI. The road markings, among other things, are striking.
(Image: SpaceX, Screenshot: heise medien)
In the Texan capital Austin, Elon Musk announced his “Terafab” project on Saturday. Under this name, the world's largest fully integrated chip factory is to be built. It is primarily intended to produce AI accelerators for training and inferencing, but also solar cells and storage modules. In the Terafab, the masks required for exposing semiconductors will also be manufactured, and the finished chips will be placed in housings, known as “packaging”.
Elon Musk expects this integrated approach to result in “an order of magnitude better” speed in chip development. They are to be manufactured and tested entirely within the same building. If improvements are needed, new masks will be produced, and the process will start again. Musk said that, to his knowledge, no one in the semiconductor industry is pursuing this approach.
In his presentation, which lasted just under half an hour and was streamed on X, Musk made no mention of the necessary basic technologies or suppliers for materials or the machines that are supposed to produce the chips. Companies like ASML, the world market leader in EUV lithography, or Trumpf, which produces the lasers for these exposure systems, were not mentioned. The entrepreneur also left timelines or cost frameworks open.
2-nanometer technology, partner unknown
From previous statements by Musk, it is only known that the Terafab is intended to achieve 2-nanometer structures on the chips. At these dimensions, which are difficult to compare across different processes, the manufacturing technology leader TSMC is currently also working. The development of such processes usually takes several years if a company has the appropriate experience, personnel, and machines.
The factory, which is to be operated jointly by Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, is planned near Tesla's headquarters in Austin, according to a rendering. Musk also provided no information about the energy supply or the size of the area. The same applies to potential partners. However, the entrepreneur had previously indicated that his semiconductor manufacturing could cooperate with Intel. Musk did not mention this company either, nor AMD, which is also based in Austin.
According to the presentation, in-house semiconductor manufacturing is necessary for the three Musk companies, not only for the existing products of SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla. In the first half of his presentation, Musk once again emphasized his vision of humanity's life in space. To achieve this, he stated, would require several times the computing power for artificial intelligence currently available on Earth. However, this would also require several times the energy.
Musk's vision: Optimus builds rockets and satellites, which will provide more AI computing power in space than on the entire Earth.
(Image:Â SpaceX, Screenshot: heise medien)
1 Terawatt of computing power in space as a goal
Consequently, future data centers are to be realized primarily with satellites in space. Musk showed renderings of a satellite called “AI Sat Mini,” whose unfolded solar cells surpass SpaceX's current Starship V3. This is about 124 meters high. To enable 1 terawatt of computing power in space, which is a goal of the Terafab, the satellites are to be transported by an even larger Starship V4, approximately 140 meters tall. Its payload is said to be 200 tons.
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One of the AI Sat Mini is intended to provide a power consumption of around 100 kilowatts. Musk described the issue of cooling such systems in space as a “bizarre debate.” SpaceX, he said, knows how to cool such devices through its tens of thousands of Starlink satellites. Other AI entrepreneurs see it differently. Sam Altman of OpenAI called the idea of data centers in space “ridiculous” a month ago, primarily due to the cost of transport and the lack of repair options for orbital systems.
Billions of humanoid robots
The chips manufactured in the Terafab are also intended for use on Earth in concrete products, including those from Musk's companies. The entrepreneur repeatedly mentioned humanoid robots as a booming segment, such as Tesla's “Optimus” system. These will soon be produced many times more frequently than cars: “I expect humanoid robot production to be somewhere between a billion and ten billion units a year, so that's a lot.”
(nie)
