Terafab has cycled through at least four cost figures since its March 2026 announcement, from $20 billion to $25 billion initially, to $55 billion in a May 2026 Texas regulatory filing, and now $16.8 billion in the August 6 confirmation, as documented by Tech Times. Electrek noted that Tesla and SpaceX are calling Terafab the largest chip manufacturing facility ever before pouring a foundation, while SpaceX told IPO investors three months earlier that the project was a general framework with no binding commitments. Terafab is an ambitious project targeting edge-inference chips for Cybercabs, Optimus robots, and SpaceX's orbital data centers, with a $16.8 billion first phase and a potential total cost exceeding $119 billion.