Elon Musk is preparing to build what could become the largest building on Earth, with Tesla and SpaceX confirming plans for a massive semiconductor factory in Texas that is expected to eventually span more than 100 million square feet.
The two Musk-led companies announced Thursday that their jointly developed “Terafab” will be constructed in Grimes County, outside Houston, with an initial investment of approximately $16.8 billion.
Musk described the planned facility in characteristically ambitious terms, calling it “the largest and most valuable building on Earth by far.”
If completed according to current plans, Terafab would surpass the world’s existing largest buildings by an enormous margin.
China’s New Century Global Center in Chengdu, currently cited as the world’s largest building by floor area, contains approximately 18.9 million square feet.
Terafab’s proposed footprint would exceed that figure more than five times over.
The Texas complex would also dwarf several of America’s most famous massive structures.
The Pentagon contains approximately 6.6 million square feet, while Minnesota’s Mall of America spans roughly 5.6 million square feet and Apple Park covers approximately 2.82 million square feet, according to the New York Post.
Even those three enormous developments combined would represent only a fraction of Terafab’s planned size.
Renderings released for the project depict an enormous wing-shaped facility sprawling across the Texas landscape.
“It will be stunningly beautiful,” Musk wrote on X.
The staggering size of the facility is tied to Musk’s growing demand for semiconductors across both Tesla and SpaceX.
“Both Tesla & SpaceX will need far more chips than current & future global production can supply,” Tesla wrote on X.
The companies are targeting production capacity exceeding one terawatt of computing power annually.
SpaceX said the facility will combine several critical stages of semiconductor production under one roof, including logic chips, memory, packaging and testing.
“The facility will be an advanced semiconductor fab that will bridge the divide between current global chip supply and the compute demand of the future,” SpaceX said.
The chips produced inside the enormous factory are expected to support several of Musk’s most ambitious technology projects.
Tesla intends to use chips from Terafab for products including its Optimus humanoid robots and autonomous Cybercabs.
SpaceX, meanwhile, said high-powered chips manufactured at the facility could eventually support its planned space-based data centers.
Construction is also expected to produce a significant economic impact in the surrounding Texas communities.
Tesla and SpaceX say the project will create at least 3,000 jobs, with workers expected to come from Grimes County and neighboring Brazos County.
The companies have pointed to hiring patterns at their other Texas facilities, where they say between 60% and 80% of new employees have been local residents.
While the first phase carries a $16.8 billion price tag, the project’s eventual cost could be dramatically higher.
Total investment across all proposed phases could ultimately reach approximately $119 billion, according to the New York Post.
Intel has also confirmed its involvement with Terafab, though the chipmaker has not publicly detailed exactly what role it will play.
The massive development has already generated controversy among some local residents.
Hundreds of Grimes County residents attended a county meeting Wednesday to raise concerns about tax incentives and what critics described as insufficient transparency surrounding agreements connected to the project.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s office has offered SpaceX a $30 million Texas Enterprise Fund grant, while the development also qualifies for another state economic incentive program.
Water consumption has emerged as another concern surrounding the semiconductor complex.
Terafab will be located at the Gibbons Creek Reservoir, which previously supplied cooling water to a coal-fired power plant that closed in 2018.
SpaceX says it intends to use reservoir water rather than drawing from local groundwater supplies.
For now, Terafab’s title as the world’s largest building remains dependent on whether Musk’s companies ultimately complete the colossal facility at the scale they have announced.
