Elon Musk has $16.8 billion plan to build world's largest building which fits 1,736 football fields

SpaceX founder Elon Musk has announced plans for 'the largest and most valuable building on Earth by far'.

SpaceX and Tesla are planning to build a building called Terafab - a 100-million-square-foot semiconductor manufacturing facility in Grimes County, Texas.

Yes, you read that right, 100-million-square foot which - if you take a standard American football field including the end zones - means the building will measure a staggering area of around 1,736 football fields.

Governor Abbott shared a press release announcing the 'SpaceX expansion' on August 6, detailing just what Elon Musk has in store for what's expected to be the biggest building in the world.

Elon Musk's plans for Terafab

Musk took to his social media platform X to share a video of the proposed building.

His caption reads: "Terafab Texas will be the largest and most valuable building on Earth by far.

"And it will be stunningly beautiful."

SpaceX adds a 'vertically integrated factory with more than 100 million square feet of manufacturing space is planned'.

But what does this actually mean for the facility?

What will Terefab Texas do?

Terefab's site states it's set to 'close the gap between today's chip production and the future's demand - a future among the stars'.

"The facility will be an advanced semiconductor fab that will bridge the divide between current global chip supply and the compute demand of the future," SpaceX adds. "The combined SpaceX and Tesla demand for chips is expected to be in excess of 1 terawatt (TW) of compute, which is significantly larger than the current global supply. While we are deeply appreciative of our current chip suppliers, and encourage them to expand production whenever possible, this looming gulf between supply and demand is at the core of Terafab’s necessity."

The factory will subsequently house 'the manufacturing, packaging, and testing of advanced logic and memory devices' all in one location, enabling 'fast, recursive improvements' and accelerating 'new compute deployed'.

These chips will be used in hardware such as Tesla's Optimus robots and self-driving Cybercabs, alongside Space X's space-based data centers.

And even just the first phase is going to cost a pretty penny.

How much will Terefab Texas cost?

Filings reveal the first phase will cost an eye-watering $55 billion and the total cost

Abbott's release notes the 'first phase' of the project 'represents a capital investment of more than $16.8 billion and will create 3,000 new jobs'.

"A Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF) grant of $30 million has been extended to SpaceX. The facility is also a qualified project under the Texas Jobs, Energy, Technology, and Innovation (JETI) program," it adds.

Although, Musk was quite to note: Musk continues: "The Terafab is bringing cutting-edge manufacturing to America, creating thousands of high-paying jobs in the Lone Star State."

Terefab will be joining SpaceX's headquarters in Starbase, Texas alongside its Starlink factory in Bastrop, Texas.