Intel stays on board with Elon Musk’s Terafab chip venture

Intel is not walking away from Elon Musk’s biggest hardware bet. The chipmaker will keep working with Musk on Terafab, his large-scale chipmaking project, according to Bloomberg. Earlier in October, Musk revealed that he had held discussions with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company. That left investors wondering whether Intel’s seat at the table was about to get crowded. What Terafab is trying to build Terafab is Musk’s attempt to manufacture ultra-high-performance chips for artificial intelligence and robotics. Three Musk companies sit behind it: Tesla, SpaceX and xAI. The planned Texas facility targets a compute capacity of 1 terawatt annually. The main site sits in Grimes County, Texas. Its initial planned investment exceeds $16.8 billion, with total spending potentially reaching up to $119 billion across multiple phases. Intel joined the effort on April 7, 2026. It was the first named foundry partner, announced alongside SpaceX, xAI and Tesla. Tesla added a technical detail later that month. During its Q1 2026 earnings call in late April, the company indicated it aims to use Intel’s 14A manufacturing process for Terafab. Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan met Musk face to face before ...