According to public filings released Tuesday, the aerospace company is preparing to spend an unprecedented fortune on a semiconductor facility solely to prevent its CEO from ever interacting with another technology vendor.
GRIMES COUNTY, TX—According to public filings released Tuesday, SpaceX is preparing to spend up to $119 billion on a massive semiconductor manufacturing facility in Texas, a project executives say is absolutely necessary to prevent CEO Elon Musk from ever having to purchase goods from another company.
The proposed facility, internally dubbed the "Terafab," will require an initial layout of $55 billion to break ground. Once completed, the plant will manufacture all the silicon required for SpaceX’s orbital rockets and its integrated artificial intelligence firm, xAI, successfully insulating the billionaire from the agonizing reality of global supply chains.
Internal documents submitted to Grimes County planners outline a sprawling, fully self-contained manufacturing ecosystem. By bringing chip production entirely in-house, the aerospace company hopes to eliminate the last remaining instances in which Musk is forced to rely on third-party expertise, speak to outside sales representatives, or acknowledge the existence of other technology firms.
We realized that every time we bought a microchip from an outside vendor, Elon was forced to acknowledge that other people also make things, which was taking a severe toll on his morale.
Vance noted that the staggering $119 billion investment is a small price to pay to ensure Musk never has to wait in line for chip allocations or admit that a component was designed outside the walls of his own facilities. The Grimes County plant will reportedly allow SpaceX to mine its own raw silicon, process its own wafers, and ultimately manufacture the exact same processors they could have purchased at wholesale, but with the distinct advantage of total corporate isolation.
At press time, Musk had reportedly amended the filing to request an additional $40 billion for an on-site nuclear reactor after realizing he currently has to endure the humiliation of buying electricity from the Texas power grid.