Intel on Tuesday announced that it will be joining Elon Musk’s ambitious Terafab project, which aims to vertically integrate the semiconductor supply chain under one roof. Intel’s update comes on the heels of Musk’s meeting with Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan this week. With this, Intel has joined Musk led companies SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla to be part of this chip production project.
The official X handle of Intel posted the update saying that it will be contributing towards the manufacturing of computer chips and integrated circuits for the Terafab project.
“Our ability to design, fabricate, and package ultra-high-performance chips at scale will help accelerate Terafab’s aim to produce 1 TW/year of compute to power future advances in AI and robotics,” Intel said.
Under the Terafab initiative, Musk is looking to build a mega chip fabrication facilities, capable of manufacturing one terawatt of AI compute capacity annually. If achieved, Musk would reportedly be producing around 50 times more AI chips than the present output.
The billionaire tech mogul had first teased the idea of the Terafab project in November last year during a Tesla shareholder meeting. At the time, Musk had said that the idea was worth being taken up with Intel.
In March this year, Musk said Terafab facilities are being established in Austin, Tesaxsthat will be collectively operated by SpaceX and Tesla. The initiatial investment to position the facilities is estimated to be at $20 billion.
According to SpaceX, Terafab entails the launcg of “the most eppic-chip building effort ever” that would combine “logic, memory, and advanced packaging under one roof.”
As per Bernstein analysts, the project could require massive funding within the range of $5 trillion to $13 trillion.
The initiative would prioritize the production of chips to power Tesla’s self-driving cars and Optimus humanoid robots along with those powering space-focussed chips.
Terafab would make a major reduction in Musk’s expenses on acquiring chips from players like TSMC, Samsung, and Nvidia while retaining autonomy in the sector.