WASHINGTON — Elon Musk is set to address employees of ASML, the world's sole supplier of the extreme ultraviolet lithography machines required to make cutting-edge chips, in a virtual fireside chat with CEO Christophe Fouquet at the Dutch company's annual internal technology conference this week, Bloomberg reported.
An ASML spokesperson confirmed Musk will share his perspectives on artificial intelligence, robotics, space exploration, and semiconductor manufacturing — four areas that converge in Terafab, the vertically integrated chip venture Musk announced in March 2026.
A $119 Billion Bet on American Chipmaking
Terafab launched as a SpaceX-Tesla joint venture with an initial $20 billion commitment, aiming to produce logic chips, memory, and advanced packaging under one roof in Texas. SpaceX has since filed plans for a $55 billion semiconductor facility in Grimes County, Texas, with total potential costs reaching $119 billion as the project scales.
Intel joined the effort in April, contributing its 14A process technology, while SpaceX takes responsibility for high-volume manufacturing. The chips are destined for the products driving Musk's companies forward: humanoid robots, AI training clusters, and the orbital compute platforms at the heart of Musk's plan for AI data centers in space.
ASML Calls Terafab "a Serious Development"
The invitation is no courtesy call. ASML said the event "took place in the context of the Terafab project, which is highly relevant to the semiconductor industry," adding that company leadership has discussed the project with Musk directly and "considers Terafab a serious development."
Fouquet went further in earlier remarks, telling Reuters that Musk is "very serious" about building one of the largest chip manufacturing operations ever attempted — and warning that soaring AI demand will leave the global semiconductor industry short on capacity for the foreseeable future. Any new entrant at the leading edge would need billions of dollars in ASML equipment, putting the Dutch firm at the center of Terafab's supply chain.
Compute Demand Keeps Climbing
The timing underscores how quickly Musk's compute ambitions are scaling. Demand signals are everywhere: Google recently agreed to pay SpaceX $920 million a month in a $30 billion compute deal, and xAI's training needs continue to grow alongside Grok's expanding user base. Owning the silicon supply chain — from fab to orbit — would give Musk's companies a structural advantage no competitor can easily match.
For ASML, whose machines print the smallest transistor patterns on Earth, a customer planning chips for robots, rockets, and orbital data centers represents an entirely new category of demand. With the fireside chat happening as SpaceX completes the largest IPO in history, the conversation between Musk and Fouquet may mark the start of one of the most consequential partnerships in semiconductor history.
