Tesla CEO Elon Musk has announced plans to invest approximately $3 billion in establishing a research-oriented semiconductor fabrication plant in Texas. Musk stated during the company's quarterly earnings call on Wednesday that the research facility will be constructed within the existing campus of the Giga Texas plant. The plant will have a limited production capacity of only a few thousand wafers per month and will serve as a platform for testing new technologies and manufacturing processes. Musk indicated that SpaceX will lead the initial phase of a larger, more ambitious chip project named Terafab. Intel has signed on to support this project as a partner, contributing its expertise in chip design, manufacturing, and packaging. Musk said, "What we've figured out so far is that Tesla handles the research chip plant, and SpaceX handles the initial phase of Terafab. As for the rest, we still have more to figure out." Terafab represents Musk's comprehensive strategy to enter the advanced semiconductor manufacturing sector, with teams from Tesla, SpaceX, and his artificial intelligence company xAI all involved in the initiative. Musk stated that the objective of Terafab is to secure sufficient chip supply for his portfolio of companies, a demand that contract manufacturers like TSMC and Samsung Electronics would be unable to meet. During the call, Musk was asked for further details regarding Intel's involvement. He responded that the plan is to utilize Intel's most advanced production process, called 14A. This process has not yet secured any customer orders. These remarks contributed to a roughly 3% increase in Intel's stock price during Wednesday's after-hours trading session.
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