Musk says his companies, not TSMC, will run Texas chip plant
Elon Musk said Wednesday that his companies will build and run Terafab, his planned chip complex in Texas, and that TSMC might at most rent part of the site. Intel, which joined the project in April, says it will stay involved, and its shares closed slightly higher. TSMC did not respond to requests for comment, CNA and Quartz reported.
Elon Musk says Taiwan's TSMC will not run his giant Texas chip project. "No, we will build and run the fab. Let there be ZERO doubt about that," Musk wrote on X on Wednesday, CNA reported. "Maybe TSMC subleases part of the Terafab if they want, but nothing more than that."
That answers a question that had worried Intel investors. Musk confirmed over the weekend that he was talking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's biggest contract chipmaker, about Terafab. "Just discussions, but something may come of it," he wrote then. Intel joined the project in April.
TSMC did not respond to requests for comment on Wednesday, CNA and Quartz reported. Quartz, citing Bloomberg, said TSMC is separately weighing a new chipmaking campus of its own in Texas.
Investors had moved fast after the talks came out. Intel shares fell 3% on Monday and another 3% on Tuesday, CNBC and Yahoo Finance reported. Intel stock had more than tripled this year before the slide. On Wednesday, after Musk's post, Intel closed up about half a percent at $113.12, Yahoo Finance market data show. Investing.com said the stock had gained before the opening bell.
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan told Bloomberg the company will remain involved in Terafab, Calcalist reported. He spoke ahead of an event in Tokyo marking 50 years of Intel in Japan.
Terafab is meant to make chips only for Musk's companies, including Tesla and SpaceX. Musk has said it will sit on Tesla's campus in Austin, with one factory for chips in cars and humanoid robots and another for AI data centers in space. Intel has said the project aims to produce 1 terawatt of computing power a year. Intel is set to supply its newest 14A chipmaking process.
Before Musk's post, a newsletter report described by Tom's Hardware said TSMC could build and run a plant for Musk's firms. A Bank of America analyst, Haas Liu, had called that unlikely. Mizuho analyst Jordan Klein called the talks "a modest neg for the INTC bulls," but said Intel could still win a role.
The stakes are big for Intel. Its chip factory business lost $10.32 billion in 2025, Calcalist reported, and Terafab was a chance to show outside customers want Intel's technology. For everyone else, chips like these end up in cars, robots and the data centers that run AI.
SpaceX has warned investors there is no guarantee Terafab will meet its goals on time, or at all.
What we know: Musk says his companies will run Terafab, and Intel says it is staying in.
What we don't: Whether TSMC will rent space at the site, and how big Intel's role will be.
Where outlets agree CNA and Quartz both quote Musk saying TSMC might sublease part of Terafab "but nothing more than that."
Where they differ A newsletter report described by Tom's Hardware said TSMC could run a Terafab plant, but Musk now says his companies will build and run it themselves.