Musk personally sets the tone for Terafab: TSMC can at most "sublease a portion," and operating it is out of the question.

Elon Musk stated that his business empire will independently build and operate Terafab, crushing speculation that industry leader Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR would take over the operation of his ambitious chip manufacturing project. The Terafab project, located in Texas, is Musk's effort to enter the chip manufacturing business, aimed at serving his Tesla, Inc. (TSLA.US) and SpaceXAI. Although Musk recently said he was in discussions with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR, the trillionaire clarified in a post on X on Wednesday that the only matter under consideration is that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR might lease a portion of the planned factory site, with no operational role involved. "If Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR is willing, perhaps it could sublease a portion of Terafab, but that's all," Musk said in response to a video posted on his social network. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. U.S. chipmaker Intel Corporation is helping Musk's companies develop technology that will be used within Terafab. The factory is expected to supply advanced semiconductors for the needs of Musk's business empire, covering Tesla, Inc.'s vehicle manufacturing and Siasun Robot&Automation business, as well as SpaceXAI, the merged entity that integrates space technology and the xAI team developing Grok. On Wednesday, he emphasized that his company will "build and operate this factory." Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. Sponsored ADR is weighing the construction of a massive new chip manufacturing campus in Texas. The company's key customers include U.S. giants NVIDIA Corporation and Apple Inc., and it is currently expanding its production facilities in the United States. If it decides to proceed with the Texas expansion, this would further strengthen the state's growing chip manufacturing expertise and capacity basethe state already has Samsung Electronics building a local factory, in addition to the Terafab project.