Tesla has recruited Gary Jiang, a manufacturing veteran with nearly 18 years at Intel, to serve as Director of its Terafab project in Austin, Texas. Jiang began the role in June 2026, according to his professional profile — and his specific background in cutting-edge semiconductor fabrication makes this hire a meaningful signal about where Terafab is headed.
Who Is Gary Jiang?
Jiang's Intel career spanned nearly two decades and covered some of the most demanding manufacturing environments in the semiconductor industry. Most recently, he served as Factory Manager at Intel's Ocotillo campus in Arizona, where he oversaw the development transfer of Intel's 18A process node — one of the most technically complex transitions in Intel's recent history — through construction, tool installation, and startup toward product certification and high-volume manufacturing.
Before that, Jiang accumulated deep experience in high-volume production of 14nm and 22nm chips. These are not niche credentials. Running a high-volume fab at those nodes requires managing thousands of process steps, yield optimization across millions of wafers, and coordinating enormous equipment and workforce logistics. That's precisely the operational muscle Terafab will need as it scales.
What Is Terafab, and Why Does This Hire Matter?
Terafab is a joint venture between Tesla, SpaceX, and xAI announced by Elon Musk on March 21, 2026, in Austin. The project's stated ambition is sweeping: integrate every stage of semiconductor production under one roof — chip design, lithography, fabrication, memory production, advanced packaging, and testing — targeting an annual output of one terawatt (one trillion watts) of computing power.
The initial prototype fab, known as Terafab North Campus, is planned as a 2-million-square-foot facility within Giga Texas. Tool installation for Phase 1 is scheduled for Q3 2026, with first silicon production targeted for early 2027 and full volume scaling by 2028. A larger full-scale complex is planned for Grimes County, Texas, where county commissioners approved a full property tax abatement package in June 2026.
The cost figures are staggering. The Austin facility alone is estimated at $20–$25 billion. SpaceX has pegged an initial investment of $55 billion for the Grimes County prototype fab, with total investment across all phases potentially reaching $119 billion.
Intel's role isn't purely advisory, either. The company formalized its position as a manufacturing partner in the Terafab project on April 7, 2026 — which makes Jiang's move from Intel employee to Tesla's Terafab Director a particularly pointed transition. He arrives already fluent in the Intel 14A manufacturing process that Terafab plans to use for chip production, alongside 2-nanometer process technology for the North Campus.
What Terafab Will Actually Build
The initial production targets are directly relevant to Tesla owners. The facility is slated to produce wafers for next-generation FSD inference chips — the hardware currently referred to as HW5 or AI5 — as well as Dojo training tiles and chips optimized for operation in space. In other words, Terafab isn't a speculative moonshot; it's the manufacturing backbone for Tesla's next wave of autonomous driving hardware.
Bringing in someone who has personally managed the startup of advanced-node fabs at Intel — rather than just designed or consulted on them — suggests Tesla is serious about hitting those Q3 2026 tool installation milestones. Fab startups are notoriously schedule-sensitive, and experienced factory managers who have done it before at scale are a scarce resource in the industry.
With first silicon now less than a year away on the published timeline, Jiang's appointment looks less like a strategic announcement and more like Tesla quietly putting the right operator in place to actually execute.
Sarah focuses on Tesla Energy, SpaceX missions, and the broader Musk AI portfolio. Former data analyst in clean energy. Based in San Francisco.
Sources verified at publish time. Spotted an inaccuracy? Email editorial@basenor.com.
