Elon Musk's new megaproject is about to transform Texas

Grimes County, Texas, is about to become ground zero for Elon Musk's biggest swing yet.

It's another crushing loss for California, which, once upon a time, might well have played host to the gargantuan project.

To no one's surprise, it won't come cheap. Musk's companies are starting with an initial investment of $16.8 billion, with a goal of $55 billion and the possibility of the figure rising to nearly $120 billion if extra phases are completed, Reuters reported.

The ambitious goal is to create a one-stop shop to address the needs of SpaceX, Tesla, and the U.S. government, all under one roof.

But that's not all.

'Thousands of high-paying jobs in the Lone Star State.'

The announcement of the facility, dubbed Terafab, comes after President Trump signed an executive order in late June that called for increased focus on and production in quantum computing.

White House Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy Michael Kratsios said there needed to be an increase in the domestic supply chain for products like superconducting circuits and semiconductors.

Elon Musk is following up the Trump administration's call to ramp up chip production with Terafab, which will sprawl out to one-sixth the size of Manhattan. That's roughly 10 times the size of Tesla's Gigafactory Texas, which itself was launched as another move to evacuate California's rough corporate environment.

Put another way, Terafab will span the size of about 60 NFL stadiums.

The complex will make, package, and test advanced memory chips that will reportedly be used as the backbone of Tesla's Optimus robots and driverless Cybercabs, in addition to being the bedrock for SpaceX data centers.

RELATED: The rockets are still blowing up. So why is Elon laughing on his SpaceX earnings call?

RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP/Getty Images

Musk has been clear on the subject, framing the factory as a must-have for chip production.

Along with the 100-million-square-foot facility will be approximately 3,000 jobs and an unknown number of power plants. "The Terafab is bringing cutting-edge manufacturing to America, creating thousands of high-paying jobs in the Lone Star State, and enabling us to produce AI chips at scale for use on Earth and in space," Musk said.

Notably, Musk is making a big bet on using gas power plants for the venture, not solar energy.

This may come as a surprise to some, as Musk has made significant investments in solar energy dating back to 2016, when he purchased energy company SolarCity for $2.6 billion in an all-stock deal.

As TechCrunch reported, SpaceX's data center development team has indicated it will be bringing its own power to the Texas plant, while also including "very large battery arrays."

RELATED: Trump writes new rules to stop rogue AI — but they're classified

Reginald Mathalone/NurPhoto/Getty Images

As if that's not enough, Musk will also be directly competing with the largest semiconductor makers in the world, such as TSMC, which is racing ahead with a huge expansion of its Arizona facility.

Terafab will do this by implementing free-electron laser technology. The "intense, powerful beams of laser light" are better for making the most advanced, smallest-feature chips, because they can produce extremely powerful light while remaining tunable. This allows for faster chip production.

"FEL FTW," Musk wrote on X in response to rumors.

"We either build the Terafab," said Musk, "or we don't have the chips, and we need the chips, so we build the Terafab."

Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!