"TerraFab" 32-year mass production plan: Musk's semiconductor manufacturing concept

It was revealed on the 9th that the semiconductor manufacturing initiative ``TerraFab'' launched by American businessman Elon Musk aims to start operation of a large-scale mass production factory in Texas in 2032. According to people familiar with the matter, preparations are underway to start operating a semiconductor prototype factory in the state in 2027 in preparation for mass production. Amid a shortage of cutting-edge semiconductors due to the global artificial intelligence (AI) boom, Mr. Musk will manufacture his own cutting-edge semiconductors and accelerate investment in AI.

It is said that orders have already begun for prototype factories from Japanese semiconductor manufacturing equipment and materials companies. The factory is scheduled to be completed in July 2027 and to be operational by the end of the same year.

The large-scale mass production factory, which is expected to be in operation for 32 years, will be responsible for the production of logic semiconductors and memory that enable advanced calculations. The final production scale is expected to be approximately 1 million units per month, of which approximately 70% will be allocated to memory and 30% to logic. The production scale is comparable to large-scale factories of major semiconductor manufacturers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) and South Korea's Samsung Electronics.

In the production of logic semiconductors, the company is providing technical cooperation with Intel, and is making adjustments to adopt the company's technology for circuit line widths of 2 nanometers (a nanometer is one billionth) and 1.4 nanometers. According to people involved, plans have been floated for Taiwanese companies to cooperate technically in memory manufacturing.

Terrafab is an initiative that Musk announced in March. Electric vehicle (EV) giant Tesla and space development company SpaceX will play a central role in establishing semiconductor factories. The company will invest $55 billion (approximately 8.7 trillion yen) in the initial stage, and if additional funds are included, the total investment amount could expand to $119 billion (approximately 18.8 trillion yen).