Terafab asks Japanese toolmakers to deliver chip gear within months, Nikkei says

TL;DR: Terafab, the chip fab project Tesla and SpaceX are building in Texas, has started procurement talks with Japanese chipmaking equipment makers, Nikkei reports. Its buyers visited Japan in early November, and at least one supplier says it was asked to deliver tools within a few months. Which companies got orders, and for what tools, has not been made public.

What was reported

Nikkei Asia reported on November 10 (Tokyo time) that Terafab has begun procurement talks with Japanese chipmaking equipment suppliers, and that the industry is reacting with "a mix of excitement and bewilderment" (Nikkei Asia). Citing Nikkei, Korea's Financial News says several Terafab procurement officials met local suppliers earlier this month to start detailed coordination, including how equipment would be brought in (Financial News).

One equipment maker told Nikkei that Terafab set a delivery deadline just a few months out. "It's an unreasonable order, but we have no choice but to do as much as we can," the supplier said, as quoted by Financial News.

The scale Terafab is aiming for

According to the same reporting, Terafab informally told equipment makers this fall that it wants to reach about 1 million wafers a month after 2032 (JKN):

| Reported long-term target | Wafers per month | |---|---| | Memory chips | about 700,000 | | Logic (computing) chips | at least 300,000 | | Total | about 1,000,000 |

For comparison, Nikkei notes that Rapidus is targeting 25,000 wafers a month at its plant in Chitose, Hokkaido, though the two fabs are not making the same kinds of chips.

Why Pad Zero readers should care

Terafab's chips are meant for Tesla's self-driving cars and Optimus robots, and for SpaceX's planned space-based AI data centers. The plan is staged: first a research fab in Austin, then a large production site in Grimes County, Texas. Musk has said he wants a working test chip from the Austin facility around May or June 2027 and mass production in the second half of 2028, a timeline he himself called "very aggressive," per Financial News.

What is still unknown

• Which Japanese companies are involved, and what tools they were asked for.
• Whether suppliers accepted the requested delivery dates.
• Contract values and order quantities.

Buying the tools is only the first step. Financial News and JKN both note that a new leading-edge fab usually takes years to move from installed equipment to reliable volume production.

Reported. Based on Nikkei Asia's reporting, as relayed by Financial News and JKN. Neither Tesla nor SpaceX has published details of the Japan orders, and Pad Zero has not independently verified them.