Musk’s staff reaches out to suppliers for Terafab project, Bloomberg News reports

April 15 (Reuters) – Elon Musk’s staff has reached out to chip industry suppliers for its Terafab “AI chip complex project” with SpaceX and Tesla, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday.

The team contacted companies such as Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron and Lam Research and asked for support from chip manufacturing partner Samsung Electronics Co., according to the report, citing people familiar with the matter.

Staff are seeking quotes and delivery times for a range of chip-making equipment, Bloomberg said, noting that they have contacted manufacturers of photomasks, substrates, engravers, depositors, cleaning devices, testers and other tools over the past few weeks.

Bloomberg added that the goal is to start silicon production by 2029 and then scale up.

Musk’s representatives have requested quick price estimates while providing minimal information about the products, and Musk wants to move “at lightning speed,” according to the report.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. ‌Tesla, SpaceX, Applied Materials, Tokyo ​Electron, Lam Research and Samsung Electronics did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Musk launched Terafab in March, and Intel said last week it would join the project to make processors that power the tech billionaire’s robotics and data center ambitions.

The project will be built at the Tesla campus in eastern Travis County, Austin, Texas.

(Reporting by Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)