Elon's New Terafab Factory EXPLAINED

Kind: captions Language: en Terafab Texas is finally broken ground. This is a really cool looking factory. Wow. Look at this. This is kind of awesome. >> every this so like what is undeniable about Musk companies in general is that they have the craziest video and photo teams. >> Mhm. Like they like >> We work with some people who are on these teams. >> Yeah. Do we? Maybe. Yeah. I mean it like I also used to intern there. It My version of the Theo Jaffe podcast is just like interning at every company ever. >> [laughter] >> Um >> Yeah. >> but Um and they they just like put so many resources into their video team and they have really really cracked videographers. And it's just gorgeous. I don't know how they like they really nail the futurism vibe. They probably they have like crazy drone shots. It's just gorgeous. >> That it is. Um and like the buildings themselves are really nice. Like in the Elon Musk special economic zones in Texas, um there's one in like Bastrop, Texas where they have the Starlink factory. Um there's one in uh like Starbase, of course. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. So this is like outside of Austin. There's like this giant uh collection of factories somewhere on the road. Where is the Starlink factory? There it is. So you can see like the factory actually looks really cool. Like this is just this is like a pleasant looking building. Oh. >> Hold on. >> December 2023. >> Ev- everything like um even the architecture is all very thoughtful. >> I think it's important for factories on the outside to look really cool. This is very important. >> This is how you combat NIMBYism. >> This actually is like one way to combat NIMBYism. >> Is just make them absolutely gorgeous. >> Yeah. It's it's like, you know, people have sort of bad ways of arguing against uh NIMBYism. You know, NIMBYism is of course a bad ideology, but some people have bad ways of arguing against it. Like this tweet from Gabe at all. Wait, they don't want the data center? and you explain to them about the architectonic order of the Eschaton, the body without organs crawling up from deep time and they still didn't want it? >> Yeah. >> So >> Um >> rather than do that, like you can just make the data center look nice. >> Yeah. >> It's not that hard. >> Or you could you know like you think about how many jobs this brings it to your community and tax dollars. And um >> Yeah, I mean like the >> And you can make the the factories like net zero or something. >> Data center providers should [snorts] just like be more I don't know, more blatant with incentives. They should be like, you know what? If you allow our data center in your community, like we're just going to give every government employee like a lot of money. >> Yeah, it's going [laughter] to be like Mr. Beast. >> They should be like >> Yeah, it's like >> build a center here, it's like God's plan music video. >> [laughter] >> Yeah. The God's plan music. Everyone just gets a wad of cash. >> I mean it is that, but instead of a a wad of >> you know. >> like maybe you know, your price uh your electricity prices are like uh covered plus some. >> Yeah, something like that. >> Uh anyway, so this is in Grimes County, Texas. >> Interesting. >> Hm. >> There Is there something funny about that? >> reminds me of her. >> I wonder how Grimes feels about this. >> He's so one shot. >> Um >> So Grimes County is not far from Houston. >> Houston, the best city in the world, by the way. >> Houston mentioned. >> Yeah. Uh I'm trying to think of the meme. I don't know if you've seen this gif. >> Yeah, you know that the meme that's like, oh, my culture is unique because we love food in our family. Americans be like, my city is unique because we have highways and driving. Yeah. >> We have highways and driving and Travis Scott. >> Hm, true. >> So >> Houston and Dallas are the two biggest cities in America that I've not been to. I've been to all the others. >> Yeah. >> So Grimes County, Texas. 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. In other words, they're going to be building a lot of chips. Well, that's the the goal at least. The available new compute in the world is like in the you know, few gigawatt range, 10 15 gigawatts. A terawatt is a thousand gigawatts. That's a lot. >> Delulu. >> Well, okay, everyone says this about every Elon Musk project and then he actually does it a lot of the time. >> know, of course, of course. I mean, he's like the hyper station master. Like he just lays out like a very incredulous idea and then like actually pulls it off. >> Mhm. >> Uh all right, so creating thousands of high-paying jobs in the Lone Star State. Let's go. And enabling us to produce AI chips at scale for use on Earth and in space. Cool. >> A vertically integrated factory with more than 100 million square feet of manufacturing space is planned. Will house the manufacturing, packaging, and testing of advanced logic memory devices. Uh bringing these aspects together in one location will enable fast recursive improvements and accelerate new compute deployed. Terafab will produce chips optimized for edge computing and inference for use in hardware like Tesla's Optimus robots and self-driving cyber cabs, along with high-powered chips designed for operating SpaceX's space-based data centers. This is just so unbelievably cool. I'm like soing out. >> I mean, this is his recruiting strategy, right? He He's like, "Guys, remember space? Well, this will help us get to space and also robots." >> the reels of saying, you know, saying your dog's favorite words and it's like, "Do you want to go for a walk in the park?" It's like recruiting engineers. We're going to build a vertically integrated 100 million square foot manufacturing hub for advanced logic devices that will go in data centers in space. >> In space. Echo sound effect. >> Yeah. >> And um and this and this works. Like they basically have a monopoly on talent when it comes to automotive like like self-driving and space everything space. >> Mhm. So, Texas has become central to our operations through Starbase Bastrop and McGregor. Like generational fumble from California here, unfortunately. Both Tesla and SpaceX were like fully in California until like 2020, basically. >> Oh, this is beautiful. >> oops. >> Uh Texas is where big ideas grow even bigger, the state's governor Greg Abbott said in a statement. >> Nice. >> So true. >> Everything's bigger in Texas. >> Yeah. >> The initial phase of Terafab is estimated to require approximately 16.8 billion dollars in capital investments from SpaceX and Tesla. That's a lot of money, but it's not like that much money for a 100 million square foot manufacturing hub that you think is going to grow to be like many times the current global output of compute. >> Mhm. >> Um obviously the you know, potential future expansion phases will bring total investment much higher. >> Yeah. SpaceX to aid the effort, SpaceX earlier this year partnered with Intel which has been trying to expand its chip contract manufacturing business. All right, the Grimes County site sits near the Gibbons Creek Reservoir whose water the companies plan to use for industrial operations rather than local ground water. All right. >> So, this is the site. This is a Gibbons Creek Reservoir in rural Texas. Now, this is the site at which the hyper object from the end will assemble itself. Like let's let's take a look at like what is what does it look like? Where where is it going to be? >> I can't wait to build a new facility in Torment Nexus, Texas. >> Torment Nexus? Torment Texas. >> No, no, I think Torment Nexus is like completely diametrically opposed to the transcendental object at the end of time. >> Mhm. >> Uh and like like these are complete opposites, so I wonder yeah. I wonder which one is getting built. >> Yeah, I mean this is just what like rural Texas looks like. >> that's Texas. >> This is where it's going to be. This is where this giant factory is going. It's kind of awesome. It's incredibly awesome. >> Yeah. >> I don't know. I've never been out here. Maybe you have. >> I have. >> I was uh here once in North Austin to see the eclipse. It's kind of uh ironic, you know, the only time I've ever been to Texas was for space purposes. >> Honestly, many such cases. >> Mhm. Uh so the facility will employ at least 3,000 people. That's a lot. That's like a lot more than the amount of permanent hires at a data center because a chip fab is not a data center. And like you actually do need to hire a lot of people. SpaceX and Tesla also take our role as being good stewards of the environment seriously. Yeah, I mean like the the like original stated purpose of Tesla is to basically save the world from climate change. >> Yep. >> The Terra people forget about this. The Terra fab site is committed committing to the use of Gibbons Creek reservoir water for industrial operations rather than local ground water. Plan on-site waste water treatment facilities, water reuse and conservation efforts, compliance with all applicable environmental pollution control laws, etc., etc. So yeah, they will, you know, signal that they care about the environment. And I I think they kind of do. >> That's that that is their whole thing. >> Yeah, Tesla genuinely. >> Locker genuinely. >> Tesla's whole thing. Elon tweets, "Terra fab Texas will be the largest and most valuable building on Earth by far, and it will be stunningly beautiful." So let's take a look. >> Wow, they can Oh my god. They're one-shotting me. No. I can't look. It's too cool. >> That's so sick. The like the robo taxis and the robo vans driving around. >> No. >> Oh man, I need to see this thing. Could you imagine if we just like didn't have NIMBYism and we could just do this all over the place? >> Well, there would still be like probably labor shortage. But cool. >> Not if we have robots. >> Oh, no. No. Why was I born in this stupid chungus time? Why wasn't I 100 years later? >> Mhm. Currently, as of August 2026, the most valuable {slash} expensive building complex on Earth by far is the Masjid al-Haram, the Great Mosque of Mecca in Saudi Arabia. A hundred billion dollars. Yeah, like there's a whole complex of stuff that's built around it. You know the Abraj al-Bait, which is like one of the tallest buildings in the world. Like an enormous clock tower. It's kind of cool. >> It's cool. >> Uh I do wonder like how valuable would presumably like if Terafab really produces a terawatt of energy a year or a terawatt of compute per year, then it will be more valuable. More than 100 billion. I think Chongqing >> imagine slurp. Again. >> Yeah. I think Chongqing East Station is also very impressive. >> Oh, yeah. I've seen like a billion TikToks of this. >> I haven't been to Chongqing East Station, but I've been to a bunch of them. And I went to a like Shenzhen Bao'an Airport terminal inside. It's a really, really cool airport. Like this is what the airport looks like. >> Yeah. I actually had a dream I was in this airport before I even saw it. >> Wow. >> [laughter] >> That's interesting. >> I don't know what that means. >> When I was there, it kind of felt like a dream. It kind of feels like not real. So, Terafab has started. This is very exciting.