Tesla Breaks Ground on $10 Billion Texas Solar Factory Called Crystal Sun

Construction has begun on Crystal Sun, Tesla’s $10 billion solar factory near Houston, Texas. The site is designed to cover the full manufacturing process, from silicon ingots to finished panels, with operations targeted for early 2029.

Crystal Sun comes after Terafab, the Austin AI chip venture announced by Elon Musk. For Tesla’s owners, it is yet another multibillion-dollar gamble that will only deliver output years after the initial spending.

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By a Tesla investor’s account, the build-out should be finished in 2028. Commercial manufacturing would then get underway in the first quarter of 2029.

The projected numbers for Crystal Sun, Tesla’s latest facility, are sizable. It could boost Texas GDP by about $107 billion and bring in around $6.4 billion in state and local taxes.

Manufacturing Dive reported that Tesla’s state filing includes 9,712 full-time positions. A local observer who toured the site, meanwhile, reported the land had been cleared and grading was already happening.

On X, CEO Elon Musk posted the construction update using the Crystal Sun name.

Project Crystal Sun https://t.co/UsJwu97AW5 — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 9, 2026

Where this lands on the calendar is important. Musk’s Terafab chip facility is focused on AI hardware, and Intel has since signed onto the Terafab effort. At Tesla’s July earnings call, Musk connected the solar push with increasing power consumption from AI and electrification.

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Crystal Sun’s planned lines cover ingots, wafers, coating, metallization and cell testing. Chinese solar cell makers operate at very low cost, Musk has said.

The Texas plant might also mark just the start. Earlier this year, Musk outlined a goal of 100 gigawatts of annual US solar cell output.

For Tesla investors, the solar plant extends a lengthening queue of big-spending projects. Terafab on its own has been billed as the most valuable building on Earth.

Tesla shares have bounced back in the latest trading sessions, though they remain lower on the year.

Apart from its plants, Tesla’s balance sheet still contains its Bitcoin holdings, and that position has not changed in recent quarters.

Viewed together, Terafab and Tesla’s Crystal Sun plant indicate that Musk is seeking control of computing and of the power needed to run it. That ambition could still be set back by delays, budget overruns or diminished state incentives. Speculation about a possible Tesla-SpaceX merger could bind the two projects even more closely.