Elon Musk wants to build a dirty 2nm chipmaking fab that you can smoke and eat cheeseburgers in — bets that Tesla will turn the concept of cleanrooms upside down
Elon Musk says that modern cleanrooms are built wrong, and if Tesla builds its own fab, he will be able to eat and smoke in that facility.
(Image credit: WhiteHouse.gov)
Elon Musk this week said that the chipmaking industry builds cleanrooms in the wrong way. The head of Tesla and SpaceX promised that once Tesla builds its own 2nm-capable fab, he would eat a cheeseburger and smoke a cigar in that fab.
"I think they are getting clean rooms wrong in these modern fabs," said Elon Musk in an interview with Moonshots. "I am going to make a bet here, that Tesla will have a 2nm fab, and I can eat a cheeseburger and smoke a cigar in the fab."
Elon - “I think they’re getting clean rooms wrong in these modern (chip) fabs. I’m going to make a bet here, that @Tesla will have a 2nm fab, and I can eat a cheeseburger and smoke a cigar in the fab.” 😂😅 https://t.co/cro6t91lHuJanuary 6, 2026
When asked whether Musk had sketched Tesla's fab in his mind and whether he found a way to protect silicon wafers from cheeseburger grease, he responded that all wafers should be contained at all times. "They just maintain wafer isolation the entire time," Musk said.
A modern fab is a large, integrated manufacturing facility that encompasses ultra-clean production cleanrooms where wafers are processed; sub-fab levels housing vacuum pumps, gas handling, and exhaust systems, dedicated tool service corridors for maintenance and utilities; centralized chemical delivery and waste management infrastructure; as well as office and control areas used for administrative work, engineering, and monitoring.
Meanwhile, cleanrooms are essentially buildings within fab buildings as they are completely separated from other segments of the fab shell. Cleanliness in cleanrooms is specified by ISO Class standards that define the number of particles per cubic meter of air at different particle sizes. For example, an ISO Class 1 cleanroom allows at most 10 particles ≥0.1 µm per cubic meter and 2 larger particles, whereas an ISO Class 2 cleanroom allows up to 100 particles ≥0.1 µm per cubic meter and 38 larger particles. The most critical operations — such as EUV or DUV lithography exposures or advanced gate formation are performed in ISO Class 1 and 2 environments. By contrast, an ISO Class 3 cleanroom allows up to 1,000 particles ≥0.1 µm per cubic meter, which is still vastly cleaner than typical fab environments and common in advanced fabs for less sensitive operations.
Naturally, smoking or eating a burger in ISO Class 1 – 3 environments is absolutely not allowed, as it renders hundreds of millions or billions of particles. In fact, one human breath produces millions of particles along with moisture, not to mention organic contamination with bacteria or viruses. So, even if wafer and tool isolation is perfect, human breath (not to mention smoke or food particles) can affect the environment, which will affect ultra-sensitive EUV mirrors and perhaps fab chemistry.
