Overview
- Tesla formally applied under Texas’s JETI program for Project Crystal Sun, a roughly $10.1 billion, 3,000‑acre vertically integrated solar‑cell complex that projects nearly 9,800 permanent jobs and targets commercial operation in early 2029.
- SpaceX and Tesla have committed $16.8 billion to the first phase of TeraFab, a Grimes County semiconductor megafactory intended to produce more than one terawatt of compute annually for Tesla, SpaceX and related AI workloads.
- SpaceX confirmed TeraFab will rely on on‑site natural gas power plants paired with very large battery arrays rather than Tesla solar, and the facility plans to draw industrial water from the nearby Gibbons Creek Reservoir.
- Both projects remain conditional on local and state incentives, permitting and financing: Tesla’s filing says it is weighing an out‑of‑state alternative if tax breaks are not granted and local officials have faced protests over abatements.
- If built as proposed, the developments would deepen Musk companies’ vertical integration by reshoring wafer‑to‑module solar and chip manufacture, but they raise clear uncertainties about final partners, staged costs, emissions, water use, and community impacts.