Elon Musk announced at Tesla's annual shareholders meeting that the company may need to construct a large semiconductor fabrication plant, dubbed the "Tesla terra fab," to meet its demands for artificial intelligence and robotics. Currently, Tesla relies on external suppliers like Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) and Samsung Electronics for chip production. Musk expressed concerns that even optimistic projections from these suppliers would fall short of Tesla's needs. He mentioned discussions with Intel about potential collaboration but emphasized that building their own facility might be the only viable solution. Musk outlined ambitious production goals for the new plant, aiming for an initial capacity of 100,000 wafer starts per month, with plans to scale up to 1 million. For context, TSMC’s capacity reached about 1.42 million wafer starts per month in 2024. While Tesla has been developing custom chips for autonomous driving, it still outsources the production of its latest "AI5" chip, which is designed to be more cost-effective and efficient for their AI systems. The push towards establishing a chip fab aligns with Musk's vision of AI and robotics as transformative forces in the global economy. He suggested that these technologies could potentially multiply the economy's output significantly. Tesla's ongoing projects, such as the upcoming production of the Cybercab—an autonomous vehicle lacking traditional controls—further illustrate the company's commitment to advancing in these sectors.