Plus: Redwire taps SpaceX’s Starfall ship for pharma mission. And Datadog warns of lower usage by major AI customer. Imani Moise hosts.
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[00:00:01] Here's your afternoon TNB Tech Minute for Thursday, August 6. I'm Imani Moise for The Wall Street Journal. SpaceX and Tesla plan to build a semiconductor fabrication plant in Texas, with the goal of producing 1 terawatt of compute per year. The newly public rocket company is doubling down on its operations in Grimes County, Texas, in an effort to produce the chips it needs for its spacecraft.
[00:00:24] Texas Governor Greg Abbott said today the TerraFab project will span 100 million square feet. The initial phase will represent a $16.8 billion investment and employ 3,000 people. Tesla also said it'll be the biggest chip manufacturing facility ever built. The company said their combined demand for chips is expected to exceed 1 terawatt a year.
[00:00:48] Space and defense company Redwire says it's agreed to send its orbital pharma technology to low Earth orbit on SpaceX's Starfall spacecraft, a vehicle that hasn't flown yet. SpaceX hasn't said much about Starfall, but has submitted plans to federal regulators that describe it as a cylindrical capsule 2.5 feet high and more than 10 feet in diameter.
[00:01:10] Redwire plans to fill a Starfall vehicle with its pharmaceutical in-space laboratory devices, which allow researchers to experiment with drugs in microgravity environments with the aim of producing new compounds. Starfall would reenter Earth from space as part of the mission, bringing the pharmacargo back for analysis. Redwire said its Starfall flight is slated for 2028. And Datadog says one of its biggest customers is reducing usage, weighing on its outlook.
[00:01:39] The data security company still posted growth in the second quarter, but shared a full-year sales outlook that was below Wall Street estimates. The guidance includes reduced usage from a leading AI company, which just signed a nine-figure renewal deal with Datadog. Management declined to share details about the customer or why it was cutting back on usage, and emphasized that it was still gaining momentum with other clients.
[00:02:02] The company now expects up to $4.47 billion in annual revenue, below analyst projection of $4.69 billion. And that's it for your TNB Tech Minutes. For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Friday's Tech News Briefing podcast.