Musk Targets 2028 for Terafab Chip Production

Elon Musk said Terafab, a chip-manufacturing project involving SpaceX and Tesla, is targeting volume production in the third quarter of 2028, while warning that the schedule is highly uncertain and production could begin in the fourth quarter instead. On SpaceX’s October 20 earnings call, Musk described the timeline as an aspiration with substantial uncertainty. He said the project’s first functional test chip is targeted for May or June 2027 at a research line in Austin, Texas. The test could use static random-access memory, or SRAM, circuits, or a similar design. Terafab is planned as a facility combining chip manufacturing, packaging and testing. Musk has described a long-term goal of producing enough computing capacity to support 1 terawatt a year for artificial intelligence and robotics. That is a future project objective, not current production. Musk said ASML and other suppliers were accelerating equipment deliveries to support the schedule. He did not directly answer an analyst’s question about whether SpaceX had ordered extreme ultraviolet lithography machines, known as EUV systems. Such equipment is used to manufacture leading-edge chips, and acquiring the machinery...