Intel hooks up with Musk’s Terafab

“Intel is proud to join the Terafab project with SpaceX, xAI, and Tesla to help refactor silicon fab technology,” says Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan.

‘Refactor’  appears to be a euphemism for optimise and will cover all aspects of the chip production process.

“Our ability to design, fabricate, and package ultra-high-performance chips at scale will help accelerate Terafab’s aim to produce 1 TW/year of compute to power future advances in AI and robotics,” says Tan, adding “Terafab represents a step change in how silicon logic, memory and packaging will get built in the future.”

The deal complements Elon Musk’s foundry deal with Samsung for $16.5 billion worth of output from Samsung’s Taylor fab. Under that deal, Musk was given the right to walk the Taylor production floor and figure out how the production process could be improved.

So now Musk has privileged access to the production technologies employed by two out of the three most advanced chip building companies in the world. His ability to walk the floor and accelerate production lines is credited for Tesla’s highly productive factories.

If the collaboration produces a successful Terafab, it will help validate Intel’s fabs as viable chip foundries and attract other customers.