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By Soo Kim
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SpaceX and Tesla, the companies co-founded by Elon Musk, have broken ground on Terafab, a massive semiconductor manufacturing facility planned for Grimes County, Texas, that is expected to become the largest building in the world by floor space.
In a statement on August 6, SpaceX said the facility would have more than 100 million square feet of manufacturing space and is designed to "build new compute at an unprecedented scale and speed." In a post on X that day, Tesla described Terafab as "the largest chip manufacturing facility ever."
The facility is intended to bring chip manufacturing, packaging, and testing under one roof, producing advanced logic and memory devices for Tesla's Optimus robots and self-driving Cybercabs as well as chips for SpaceX's planned space-based data centers. According to SpaceX, the project follows the groundbreaking of a research fab at the North Campus of Giga Texas, which the company described as a precursor to the larger facility.
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The scale of the project underscores the growing importance of semiconductor production as demand for artificial intelligence and advanced computing accelerates. SpaceX says Terafab will help bridge the gap between the current global chip supply and future compute demand, while enabling faster development and deployment of new generations of chips.
The first phase of Terafab is estimated to cost more than $16.8 billion and is expected to create 3,000 new jobs, according to a statement from the office of Texas Governor Greg Abbott. The first phase was initially reported to be $55 billion, with a full buildout of $119 billion, according to a public hearing notice in Grimes County released in May.
County officials granted SpaceX a property tax break following a public hearing in June. The agreement reportedly waives SpaceX’s property taxes in exchange for the company paying $10 million to the county upfront, followed by $20 million per year for 35 years.
During the June hearing, locals raised concerns about the facility's impact on property values, local businesses, and their rural way of life, as well as potential environmental impacts.
Marie Egyed, the head of the Grimes County Citizens for Responsible Development (GCCRD), said locals aren’t fundamentally opposed to it, but want proper oversight and transparency over the project. “We’re not going to stop it. But maybe we can minimize the negative impact," Egyed said, according to Realtor.com.
Newsweek reached out to SpaceX and Tesla for comment via email.
If completed, Terafab would surpass some of the world's most famous megastructures, including airport terminals, corporate campuses, shopping centers, and manufacturing plants. Here is how it compares.
Tesla Gigafactory in Texas
Tesla's Gigafactory in Austin is already among the largest manufacturing buildings in the United States. The factory contains approximately 10 million square feet of floor area and has frequently been cited as one of the country's largest industrial structures. At more than 100 million square feet, Terafab would be roughly 10 times larger.
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New Century Global Center
Located in Chengdu, China, the New Century Global Center is widely cited as one of the world's largest buildings by floor area among completed structures. The mixed-use complex contains approximately 18.3 million square feet of floor space, including hotels, offices, shopping areas and entertainment venues. Terafab's reported footprint would be more than five times larger.
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Boeing Everett Factory
Boeing's Everett Factory in Washington is the largest building in the world by volume. The aircraft assembly plant contains about 4.28 million square feet of floor area but encloses roughly 472 million cubic feet of space, a record that reflects its enormous internal volume used for aircraft production. Terafab's reported floor area would dwarf Everett's footprint, although the Boeing facility would remain one of the world's largest structures by volume.
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The Pentagon
The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, is one of the best-known large office buildings in the world. The structure contains approximately 6.6 million square feet of floor space and has long been used as a benchmark for construction scale. Based on the figures released by SpaceX, Terafab would be more than 15 times larger.
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Mall of America
The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, is the largest shopping mall in the U.S., spanning approximately 5.6 million square feet. Even with retail, entertainment and hospitality uses combined, the mall remains only a fraction of Terafab's planned size.
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Dubai Mall
Terafab would dwarf the United Arab Emirates' Dubai Mall, widely described as the world's largest shopping mall by total area, which has about 5.9 million square feet of internal floor area and more than 13 million square feet of total area. The Texas chipmaking complex would be roughly 17 times larger than the mall's enclosed floor space.
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Apple Park
Apple Park, Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California, is one of the most recognizable corporate campuses in the world. Its circular main building has approximately 2.8 million square feet of floor space. Terafab would be more than 35 times larger by floor space.
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Central Park
New York City's Central Park spans 840 acres, equivalent to approximately 36.5 million square feet. Unlike the other examples, Central Park is not a building, but it provides a useful sense of scale. At more than 100 million square feet, Terafab would cover an area over three times the size of Central Park.
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Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport Terminal D
Terminal D at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas is often cited as one of the largest airport terminals in the U.S., spanning around 2.1 million square feet. Terafab's 100-million-square-foot size would place it on a scale more commonly associated with major transportation hubs than individual buildings.
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Dubai International Airport Terminal 3
Dubai International Airport's Terminal 3 is currently the world's largest airport building by floor space. Terafab's planned 100 million square feet of manufacturing space would be nearly eight times the size of Dubai Airport’s Terminal 3, which spans approximately 12.8 million square feet.
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Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Rebecca Flood and Sam Wilson.
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