Elon Musk Is Building the Biggest Building in the World

Tesla and SpaceX confirmed Thursday they will build Terafab, a semiconductor megafactory in Grimes County, Texas, with a first-phase investment of $16.8 billion. Once complete, the complex is planned to exceed 100 million square feet, more than five times the size of China’s New Century Global Center and larger than the Pentagon, Apple Park and Mall of America combined. Elon Musk, who runs both companies, described it as “the largest and most valuable building on Earth by far.” Intel confirmed it will contribute to the project, though details of its involvement remain undisclosed...

Tesla said both companies need more chips than current and future global production can supply, with a goal of producing over one terawatt of compute annually. The facility will handle logic chips, memory, packaging and testing in a single structure. Chips manufactured there will power Tesla’s Optimus robots and Cybercabs, as well as SpaceX’s planned space-based data centers. The project is expected to create at least 3,000 jobs, with 60 to 80 percent of hires expected to come from Grimes and neighboring Brazos County...