Musk’s joint venture team between Tesla and SpaceX reached out to Lam Research alongside other suppliers for price quotes and delivery times on photomasks, substrates, etchers, depositors, cleaning devices and testers. The requests provided minimal product specifications and demanded estimates by the Monday following a holiday Friday, reflecting a push for “light speed” procurement.

If Terafab advances to full production, Lam Research could secure a multi-billion-dollar contract supporting the project’s one terawatt annual computing capacity goal. Equipment stocks reacted positively, with Lam Research shares rising over 2% in pre-market trading following news of the outreach.

Terafab intends to launch a pilot line in Austin leveraging Tesla’s existing EV plant and has engaged partners like Samsung and Intel for capacity support. Despite its goal to reshape chipmaking, industry observers question the feasibility of achieving such unprecedented scale and clarity around expansion beyond Texas remains limited.