Elon Musk will smoke in his chip room.

Elon Musk said he doesn't understand the idea of a clean lab. Photo: Wccftech .

Elon's plans for a network of chip manufacturing plants have changed significantly in the past few months. The billionaire now rejects the idea of needing cleanrooms in factory operations and says he can smoke cigars in his TeraFab.

Elon Musk proposed that Tesla build its own network of chip factories at the most recent shareholder meeting, arguing that this would be a necessary step to ensure the company can meet the demand for customized chips. Tesla has also entered into a large-scale collaboration with Samsung for its AI5 and AI6 chip lines.

Speaking at the Moonshots event with Peter Diamandis, Elon said that Tesla's proposed TeraFab could produce 2nm chips. However, he said he didn't understand the concept of a cleanroom, even suggesting that one could smoke a cigar inside.

“I think they’re misunderstanding what a cleanroom in modern fabs (fabrication labs) is. I’d bet here that Tesla will have a 2nm factory, and I could be eating a cheeseburger and smoking a cigar in there,” he shared.

According to Wccftech , cleanrooms are an integral part of chip manufacturing plants. Their function is to control contaminant particles that could affect the yield of the chips.

Typical labs are subject to strict environmental controls. Photo: Intel.

Companies like TSMC essentially spend billions of dollars to maintain a tightly controlled environment in their fabs. Their laboratories are equipped with devices such as HEPA/ULPA filtration systems, and require all operating personnel to wear full-body protective gear.

Another notable point mentioned by Elon is the production of 2nm chips at TeraFab. However, given Tesla's lack of semiconductor manufacturing experience, if they truly want to aim for the 2nm process, it's highly likely the company will have to engage in some form of collaboration with existing foundry partners.

In a November 2025 interview with Baron Capital, Elon Musk predicted that future demand for AI chips would be so high that if partners like TSMC and Samsung couldn't produce enough chips for Tesla (100-200 billion chips per year), it would take them five years to build a new factory, far longer than the expected 1-3 years.

In 2025-2026, due to competition for new specialized chips, especially for AI and servers, other chip sources will face severe shortages. Many governments have introduced support packages to increase domestic chip production capacity (US, EU) in order to reduce dependence on a few factories.

Tesla is accelerating the development of its own AI chips (AI5, AI6) to power self-driving cars, the Optimus robot, and its overall data infrastructure, but it is entirely dependent on TSMC and Samsung. Elon Musk once hoped to create high-yield fabs like Terafab and Gigafab.

However, Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, has warned that building a chip fab is difficult and expensive. "Musk may be underestimating the complexity of the semiconductor industry," he said.

Source: https://znews.vn/elon-musk-se-hut-thuoc-trong-phong-chip-cua-minh-post1618009.html