Elon Musk has started work on what would be the biggest building in the world – even larger than a factory so big it creates its own weather. The SpaceX founder's Terafab factory could stretch as long as three miles and cost a jaw-dropping £90bn. That dwarfs the current largest building by volume on the planet – the Boeing factory in Everett, Washington.
Construction crews have already been spotted at the proposed site of the factory in Grimes County, Texas, and locals' views are mixed.
Local Reactions to the Megastructure
“I feel like we were going to grow anyway, but we will just be faster,” resident Evelyn Szymczak, who lives in nearby Anderson, said. Brian Garwood, another local, said the area could soon feel very different: “It will no longer feel like the country, but I think it’s great for Bryan/College Station.”
The size of the factory is all the more impressive given how much bigger it is than the Boeing rival. The plane manufacturer's building encompasses over 472 million cubic feet and 98 acres, while the original Disneyland park in Anaheim, California, covers approximately 85 acres. It even generated its own weather system – when first opened, clouds would materialise beneath its 90ft-high ceiling due to moisture accumulation.
What Do We Know About the Terafab?
SpaceX and Tesla are planning to construct the facility in Grimes County, Texas, as they scramble to secure the massive computing power required for their future innovations. Terafab would span an area equivalent to approximately 1,736 standard American football fields. The project's website states the facility is engineered to "close the gap between today's chip production and the future's demand - a future among the stars".
The factory is anticipated to unite the manufacturing, packaging and testing of advanced logic and memory devices beneath a single roof. According to SpaceX, this could enable more rapid advancements in its technology and speed up the rollout of new computing systems. The chips are anticipated to be deployed across a variety of Musk's ventures, including Tesla's Optimus humanoid robots, autonomous Cybercabs and SpaceX's proposed space-based data centres.
How Much Is It Going to Cost?
According to Reuters, a May filing showed SpaceX has proposed an initial investment of $55 billion (£41 billion) to build the Terafab, with the total amount rising to $119 billion (£90 billion) if extra phases are completed. Nevertheless, the project is also anticipated to generate thousands of jobs. Texas Governor Greg Abbott's office confirmed the initial phase will generate 3,000 new jobs, with SpaceX receiving a $30million (£22million) grant from the Texas Enterprise Fund. Terafab is also eligible for the state's Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation (JETI) programme.
Musk stated the project would deliver advanced manufacturing to the US while generating thousands of well-paid positions in Texas. He said: "The Terafab is bringing cutting-edge manufacturing to America, creating thousands of high-paying jobs in the Lone Star State."
How Does Terafab Compare to the Boeing Everett Factory?
The proposed Terafab is designed to overshadow even some of the planet's largest industrial structures, featuring more than 100 million square feet of manufacturing capacity and an estimated internal volume of approximately 100 million cubic metres. It could extend for three miles.
In contrast, Boeing's Everett factory in Washington contains roughly 472 million cubic feet, or around 13.3 million cubic metres. Based on these projections, the Terafab could boast a footprint between five and 23 times greater than the Boeing facility and roughly 7.5 times its internal capacity, positioning it amongst the largest manufacturing structures ever constructed.
