[Opinion] Elon Musk Is at It Again < Latest Stories < 기사본문

Elon Musk said on a podcast in January that workers would be able to eat cheeseburgers and smoke cigars inside a 2-nanometer semiconductor plant Tesla plans to build. His argument was that cleanrooms would be unnecessary if wafers remained sealed throughout the manufacturing process. The semiconductor industry, which monitors and controls even airborne dust particles, laughed off the remark as absurd.

That same industry is now discussing supply contracts with Musk’s Terafab.

Musk replied to a post on X citing THE ELEC’s Oct. 20 report on Terafab, saying that the output value of a single Terafab building would rank among the world’s 20 largest economies by gross domestic product (GDP). Countries around 20th place have annual GDP of roughly $1 trillion.

In 2018, Musk said a Tesla Roadster equipped with rocket thrusters might be able to fly. Eight years later, on Oct. 15, he demonstrated a car lifting off the ground using compressed-air thrusters. It took longer than expected, but he eventually did it. Given Musk’s track record, it is difficult to dismiss his cheeseburger-friendly semiconductor factory as mere bluster.

Terafab is a semiconductor plant that Tesla and SpaceX are building in Texas. According to THE ELEC’s reporting, Musk aims to establish a facility capable of processing 1 million wafers per month within 10 years. That volume is comparable to Samsung Electronics’ memory chip production capacity. Musk has said chips produced at Terafab will be used in Tesla vehicles, humanoid robots and artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, among other applications.

Intel joined the project as a technology partner just over two weeks after Musk officially announced it in March. The head of Terafab is also a former Intel executive. Lam Research and Applied Materials have reportedly established dedicated teams. This month, TSMC also officially confirmed that it is discussing potential cooperation on Terafab with Musk’s team.

At SEMICON West this month, procurement officials from Tesla and SpaceX visited around 10 booths operated by South Korean materials, components and equipment suppliers starting on the opening day. More than half of those companies have signed nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) and are discussing potential supply items.

The pace is striking. “Even when we send inquiries in the early morning hours in the U.S., we receive responses within 30 minutes to an hour,” an executive at a South Korean supplier said. “Engineers have decision-making authority, so the way they work is completely different from dealing with conventional semiconductor customers.” An executive at an overseas equipment supplier said, “I’ve never seen this level of execution speed in the semiconductor industry.”

Reactions among people at SEMICON West were largely similar: Musk is once again embarking on something enormous, but he may once again pull it off. Whether Terafab will materialize as planned remains uncertain. Musk has no experience operating a semiconductor fabrication plant. There is also no precedent for building a fab capable of processing 1 million wafers per month solely to produce chips for internal use, without external customers.

Rino Choi, a professor at Inha University, wrote on Facebook: “The semiconductor industry has spent decades developing what it considers optimal manufacturing methods, but it is also true that questions arise about whether these really are the best approaches. I’m not being sarcastic. I genuinely want to see the semiconductor manufacturing process Musk envisions.”

How far can Musk go in overturning manufacturing practices the semiconductor industry has regarded as optimal for decades? It remains to be seen whether a fab where people can eat cheeseburgers and smoke cigars is truly possible. Perhaps the question itself is wrong. After all, if robots fill the factory, there may be no reason for humans to enter it in the first place.