The CHIPS Act escrow and federal equity stake remain real overhangs, and management has flagged that Intel 14A could be paused if customer demand fails to materialize. Offsetting that risk, Intel repurchased the 49% minority equity in its Fab 34 facility in Ireland and joined the Terafab consortium alongside SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla, both signals that the foundry roadmap is being defended capital-first rather than wound down.
Beyond confirmed deals, reports indicate preliminary agreements or active discussions with Apple, Nvidia for AI GPU manufacturing, Google, Tesla, and the Terafab project involving SpaceX and xAI – though Tan declined to confirm customer names directly when asked about Apple specifically. “Ninety plus percent of the most advanced processors are manufactured outside the country,” Tan told Cramer. “I think it’s important to bring some of them back.” · Looking further ahead, Tan said Intel’s 14A pro
Elon Musk’s Terafab is reportedly working with Intel Foundry, which is exactly the kind of high-profile second-source validation that gives Intel a credible runway to chase the segment.
Intel's 14A node is on track for risk production in 2028 and volume in 2029, lining up with TSMC's A14. Tan also confirmed 10A and 7A are in active planning, while the 14A PDK 0.9, which he calls the "Holy Grail," lands for external customers in October 2026. Apple has signed on for 18A, with Elon Musk's TeraFab lined up for 14A.
Let's dissect this TAM trompe-l'œil. The filing bundles Starlink (satellite broadband), Starship (launch services), Terafab (semiconductor manufacturing), and Groth AI (large language models) into one glorious spreadsheet cell. Each gets multiplied by some consultant's "by 2035" forecast.
The affiliated ventures clause matters because Musk’s empire is now financially interlocked. Tesla beneficially owns 18,990,195 shares of SpaceX Class A common stock, and the two are jointly building Terafab, an AI chip manufacturing initiative expected to be the world’s largest chip plant.
The filing also mentioned the Terafab initiative—an even more ambitious venture involving SpaceX, Tesla, and Intel—that aims to build a chip manufacturing facility capable of “producing 1 terawatt per year of compute hardware.” But SpaceX ...
SpaceX and Tesla are working together on joint Terafab project, intended to make AI chips for Tesla's robotaxis and humanoid robots. Elon Musk · announced the joint project between SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla in March.
"We continue to believe that SpaceX ... the public release of SpaceX's IPO filing. Tesla breaks ground at the construction site for a joint Terafab with SpaceX and xAI....
Wolfe highlighted Terafab, a large-scale chip fabrication facility announced in the first half of 2026, as another key data point, with Intel named as a partner citing its expertise across design, fabrication and packaging.
Across Terafab (chips), COLOSSUS (training), Grok (model), X (data and distribution), and Cursor (developer applications), SpaceX is building what it pitches as the only fully vertically integrated AI company. The economic claim is that controlling every layer drives cost-per-token down faster than competitors and compounds the advantage over time.
When Musk announced Terafab in March 2026, he painted it as a transformative $25 billion chip manufacturing colossus — the world’s largest semiconductor facility, vertically integrating lithography, fabrication, and packaging under one roof.
Terafab is not a done chip plant. Based on S‑1 legal disclosure and consistent media paraphrases, SpaceX and Tesla/Intel have only a general framework; key economic and IP terms are not finalized, there are no binding commitments to continue, and there is explicit risk that definitive agreements may never be signed.
May 22, 2026 · Simply Wall St · Reviewed by Sasha Jovanovic · In recent weeks, Intel’s AI-focused chip push has intersected with multiple developments, including SCRT Labs integrating Intel Trust Authority into SecretVM for default hardware attestation and Intel–linked roles in the Terafab project and a preliminary Apple chip-making arrangement, while shareholder proposals on China risk, human rights due diligence, and chair–CEO separation failed at the May annual meeting.
A modern AI model carries about 400 billion "weights"—the patterns it learned during training. Stored in standard format, that's 800 gigabytes.
On 21 March 2026, Musk announced Terafab — a vertically integrated semiconductor fabrication and packaging facility located in Austin, Texas, designed to produce more than one terawatt of AI compute capacity per year.
Dubbed “Terafab,” the proposed $20 to $25 billion project is a collaborative effort involving Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI, and is designed to build specialized chips to power Musk’s interconnected technology portfolio.