TSMC's Wei: Any Fab in Musk's Terafab Must Be Run by TSMC

On its Q3 earnings call on October 15, TSMC chairman and CEO C.C. Wei told analysts the Taiwanese chipmaker is open to collaborating on Elon Musk's Terafab project in Texas, but drew a line on operations: 'the fab has got to be run by TSMC.' Bloomberg reported that no agreement has been reached.

'We are still in discussion, let me say that,' Wei said, framing Terafab's backers as a prospective customer.

The remarks respond to a Musk post on X on October 7, in which Musk said SpaceX would 'build and run the fab' and offered TSMC the option to 'sublease part of the Terafab if they want, but nothing more than that.' Terafab's first phase, a roughly $16.8 billion plant in Grimes County, Texas, broke ground in August 2026 on the site of the former Gibbons Creek coal plant and is backed by Tesla, SpaceX and xAI, targeting about one terawatt of annual AI computing capacity. Intel joined as a development partner in April 2026.

TNW noted that TSMC's position mirrors its joint-venture template in Japan and Germany, where TSMC operates the plants its partners co-fund.

TSMC separately reported Q3 revenue of $46.7 billion, up 41% year-over-year, and guided Q4 to between $52.3 billion and $54.3 billion. The story extends a dense run of TSMC coverage on our TSMC news page this quarter.