Inside Elon Musk’s $55B Terrafab Team

Kind: captions Language: en Okay, so remind us here before we get into the org chart. I mean, what is the ambition here with Terafab and where do things stand right now? >> Yeah, I mean I would say it's one of Elon Musk's most ambitious projects. So, it's a semiconductor manufacturing facility spread across three of his like most important companies. It's a collaboration between SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI. Um and basically he is trying to, you know, bring this vertically integrated approach and create these chips that could power full self-driving, Optimus, and data centers. So, basically spanning across his companies. But right now it's very early in the process. So, he's still bringing on talent, you know, across the chip industry, bringing them in from Tesla and SpaceX to work together, and getting permits. >> Right, so they they haven't actually made anything. They're still sort of in the planning phase. So, nothing's really been constructed yet. >> early. He had just announced it in March, but it's something he's really kind of hyped up on Twitter, something he's, you know, building up in the company right now. >> Okay. And and both Tesla and SpaceX have both contributed a significant amount of funding to this effort? >> Yes. So, they've both jointly agreed to fund $55 billion initially. Um and that can grow over time, I think to about $101 billion over the course of several years. So, it's a significant investment. >> Okay, so now let's get to the the org chart that you published. Uh you document I think it was 70 people approximately at Tesla across the whole company. One of the themes that came of the org chart which you point out in the story is that a number of these people are working on the Terafab effort. Uh what did we learn about who at Tesla is is directly involved in that program? >> Yeah, so we learned that there's a lot of SpaceX people in Tesla working on this endeavor. So, John Federspiel, who was a senior-level um product engineering person on Starlink at SpaceX, is the leader of the project and is reporting directly to Elon Musk. They've brought in a number of people from Starship, Starlink, Dragon engineering and managers to work on the project and they are also listed internally at Tesla. They've also been recruiting a bunch of people from Intel. We found four key hires over the past few months including Gary Yang, who is like a 17-year veteran at Intel and is is considered a pretty significant hire for the team. >> And when you say bringing them in from SpaceX, I mean, I just want to make sure I understand this. Is Tesla is this Tesla hiring people from SpaceX or is this just people from SpaceX that are sort of like on secondment over at Tesla or something like that? >> Yeah, it's pretty confusing cuz it's it's kind of a unique deal and it's it's a very Elon Musk thing. So, they're working at both companies. So, they're brought in as SpaceX partners is what they're identified in in the org chart. They have their own roles at SpaceX, but then they're also in internal Tesla systems because they're working together. So, they're still employed by SpaceX, but they're also working with Tesla. >> In other words, I think their LinkedIn like literally has to say I'm just working at the the Musk corporation because there's really no other way to describe it. So, you talked about some of the people here which are interesting. I wondered as you looked at the Tesla org chart as a whole, other than the the number of people who are ultimately involved in the Terrif effort, were there other themes that you drew from the org chart or other questions that you came up with in terms of how the company is structured? >> Yeah, there's there's a few interesting things. So, one thing I noticed is this year only one of Elon Musk's direct reports has left, and that's kind of quite a contrast to last year where he lost several direct reports. And generally, he's known for having a lot of turnover. Um so, he lost Raj, who was leading Tesla sales and AI efforts at the company. And Raj's responsibilities were spread across three new direct reports to Elon Musk. Um and they're also kind of emphasizing this focus on AI in the company. So, there's multiple new roles around like bringing AI to the factory, AI infrastructure at the company. And then of course, there's, you know, the humanoid robotics program under Constantinos Laskaris and Ashok's um autopilot team. So, there's a lot of um different people reporting to Elon Musk working specifically on AI. >> And last question for you, Grace. I I I I mean, what do you What did this tell us about a possible merger between Tesla and SpaceX? I Does it make it more likely based on the way the the organization is structured? >> Um it's it's hard to say. It's definitely a rumor inside the company and something that investors are talking a lot about. Um it's something I'm very curious about. Um I do think it shows us that they're collaborating more than ever and getting closer and closer. Whether that means there's going to be a merger or not, I mean, it's too soon to say. >> Great. Well, Grace, I want to thank you for coming on. That is Grace Kay, our Elon Musk reporter here at The Information.