Elon Musk’s company approached the County of Grimes, Texas, to request tax relief for a semiconductor plant. The initial investment is estimated at $55 billion, and could reach $119 billion in all subsequent phases. This is well in excess of the original $20 billion announced by the Terafab project.

Production is to be located on the site where the former coal power plant was located (near the Gibbons Creek reservoir). The plant will consume a lot of water, which is alarming to local residents - they fear higher water tariffs. Public discussions scheduled for June 3.

55 billion is more than the 52.7 billion that the US CHIPS Act allocated to the entire semiconductor industry. The A119 billion is comparable to TSMC’s overall planned investments at the Arizona campus. According to analysts, Musk intends to finance the project through a possible IPO by SpaceX. Neither the company nor the entrepreneur has yet commented on the application.