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SpaceX, Tesla launch $16.8B Texas chip plant; residents demand oversight

8/7/2026

Summary

SpaceX Builds Power

SpaceX and Tesla will build natural-gas power plants and batteries for the Terafab chip factory in Grimes County, Texas.
The $16.8 billion first phase, creating 3,000 jobs, includes a $30 million grant and a 100 percent tax abatement for $5 billion spending by 2030.
SpaceX will purchase $2.8 billion of gas turbines over the next three years.
Intel Corp. joined in April to provide chip-design, fabrication and packaging expertise.

Summary

Residents Petition

About 900 Grimes County residents signed a petition urging stricter oversight, local hiring targets and enforceable pollution controls for projects like Terafab, and submitted it to the County Commissioner Court.
County officials agreed to form a committee to review the petition’s demands and consider additional safeguards.
Residents Bobbie Jo Swafford and Robert Raley said they lack answers on the facility’s scope, heightening anxiety about power use, pollution and construction-worker influx.

Summary

Musk Unveils Terafab

Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted a Terafab rendering video on X that reached 5.5 million views.
The rendering shows a façade, a plaza with a reflecting pool and spires.
Renderings show robots working the 2.5-mile site beside a driverless Robovan that targets sub-$1-per-mile service despite lacking a production date, and a Tesla Semi.
Musk said the plant will be the largest and most valuable building on Earth and called it beautiful.

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SpaceX Builds Power

SpaceX and Tesla will build natural-gas power plants and batteries for the Terafab chip factory in Grimes County, Texas.
The $16.8 billion first phase, creating 3,000 jobs, includes a $30 million grant and a 100 percent tax abatement for $5 billion spending by 2030.
SpaceX will purchase $2.8 billion of gas turbines over the next three years.
Intel Corp. joined in April to provide chip-design, fabrication and packaging expertise.

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