Intel Joins Elon Musk’s Terafab Project to Build Chips for Humanoid Robots and Data Centres

Intel, on Tuesday, announced that it will join Elon Musk's Terafab project, alongside SpaceX, Tesla, and xAI. The chipmaker said that it will bring its domain expertise in designing and fabricating processors to help the billionaire build and scale the aim of developing chipsets for humanoid robots and data centres. First announced in March, Terafab wants to produce more than one terawatt of compute per year. Notably, chip fabrication is considered one of the most difficult ventures, requiring extremely high funds and years of research and development.

Intel Joins Hands With Elon Musk for Terafab

In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), the chipmaker announced its decision to work with Musk's other companies to “help refactor silicon fab technology.” With this, Intel has become the first company not owned by Musk to join the project. It is also the only Terafab partner that is involved in active chip fabrication. It is unclear what role the company will play in the project.

“Elon has a proven track record of reimagining entire industries. This is exactly what is needed in semiconductor manufacturing today. Terafab represents a step change in how silicon logic, memory and packaging will get built in the future. Intel is proud to be a partner and work closely with Elon on this highly strategic project,” said Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan in a separate X post.

Terafab was first announced by Musk on March 22, with the goal to produce more than one trillion watts of compute each year. In a post, the serial entrepreneur explained that the new initiative will feature two fabs, with each focusing on a single chip design to simplify the process flow.

He also claimed that once operational, Terafab will iterate new chip designs every day in the research fab to quickly experiment and find designs that work. However, many experts have raised concerns over these claims. Musk has confirmed that the first two Terafab factories will be built in Austin, Texas, but he did not share any timelines on when the factories would become operational.

Intel's involvement in the project likely comes after Nvidia and AMD have both taken big strides in the AI chip market, leaving it behind. The Terafab project, which aims to build compute for robots and AI data centres, provides it with an anchor client in the space for its foundry business.