Glossary
Terms A to Z
Each entry names a real company, facility, program, law, agency, or technology, with a link to the AustinIO page that covers it where one exists.
A B C D E F G H I K L M O P R S T U W
- AggieFab Nanofabrication
- Texas A&M University's semiconductor research and prototyping cleanroom, used for university fabrication research and early device work. Coverage: Brazos Valley Semiconductor Concentration.
- AI7/D3
- Tesla's planned radiation-tolerant inference chip for SpaceX orbital compute, including Starlink. It is slated for production at the Terafab fab in Grimes County.
- Austin-San Antonio Corridor
- The Interstate 35 corridor linking Austin and San Antonio, home to Toyota's San Antonio truck plant, Microsoft data centers, defense electronics, and fast-growing suburbs such as San Marcos and New Braunfels.
- Baseload
- Generation that runs near full output around the clock. In ERCOT that means nuclear plants such as Comanche Peak and the South Texas Project, plus combined-cycle gas.
- Behind-the-meter (BTM)
- Generation or load on the customer side of the utility meter, run apart from the grid. Texas examples include natural gas plants serving data centers at Sandow Lakes, CloudBurst San Marcos, and sites in the Permian Basin.
- BESS (Battery Energy Storage System)
- Grid-scale or on-site battery storage used for peak shaving, frequency regulation, and firming wind and solar. Texas is one of the fastest-growing US markets, helped by Tesla's Megapack and Megablock factory in Brookshire. Coverage: Texas BESS Concentration.
- Brownfield
- A site with prior industrial use that can reuse existing transmission lines, water rights, and permits. Texas examples include the former Gibbons Creek coal plant (now Terafab) and the former Alcoa smelter at Sandow Lakes. Coverage: Why Texas: The Structural Logic of AI-Industrial Concentration.
- Cortex
- Tesla's AI training cluster at Giga Texas, used for Full Self-Driving and Optimus training. Cortex 2 is under construction. Coverage: Tesla Giga Texas.
- Cybercab
- Tesla's two-seat robotaxi with no steering wheel or pedals, built at Giga Texas starting in April 2026. Tesla began its Austin robotaxi service in June 2025. Coverage: Texas Robotaxi Deployment.
- Cyclotron Institute
- Texas A&M University's nuclear science lab, which also runs radiation-effects testing for chips bound for space, such as radiation-tolerant designs for SpaceX.
- DoD SkillBridge
- Department of Defense program that lets service members train or intern with civilian employers during their last 180 days of service. Heroes MAKE America is one Texas SkillBridge program.
- ERCOT
- Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the grid operator for about 90% of Texas load. Its grid does not cross state lines, so it sits largely outside Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) rate jurisdiction and runs its own market. Coverage: ERCOT Energy Sovereignty.
- Federal CHIPS Act
- The CHIPS and Science Act, signed in August 2022, which funds US semiconductor manufacturing and research. Texas awards include Samsung Taylor and Texas Instruments' Sherman fabs.
- Fermi America
- Amarillo-based developer of Project Matador, an 11 GW data center and power campus in Carson County in the Texas Panhandle.
- Front-of-the-meter (FTM)
- Generation or storage on the utility side of the meter that sells into the ERCOT market, such as West Texas wind farms, utility-scale solar, gas plants, and nuclear.
- Frontera
- Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) supercomputer at the University of Texas at Austin, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). Horizon is its successor.
- Gibbons Creek Reservoir
- Reservoir in Grimes County at the former Texas Municipal Power Agency coal plant, closed in 2018. The site, with its transmission lines and water, now hosts SpaceX's Terafab fab.
- Greenfield
- A site with no prior industrial use, which usually means building new transmission, water supply, and roads, and waiting longer for power. Coverage: Why Texas: The Structural Logic of AI-Industrial Concentration.
- Grid-tied
- Generation or load connected to and coordinated with the grid, as opposed to islanded or behind-the-meter setups. Grid-tied sites take part in ERCOT energy and ancillary services markets.
- Heroes MAKE America
- Manufacturing training program for transitioning service members, run by Texas State Technical College (TSTC) as a DoD SkillBridge program.
- Horizon TACC
- TACC's NSF-funded AI supercomputer, the successor to Frontera, housed at the Sabey Data Centers campus in Round Rock, Williamson County. It is one of the largest academic supercomputers in the US.
- Hyperscaler
- A cloud operator at the largest scale: Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Meta, and Oracle. Texas sites include Microsoft in San Antonio and Oracle's role in Stargate Abilene.
- HyVelocity Hub
- Gulf Coast hydrogen hub selected in 2023 under the Department of Energy's Regional Clean Hydrogen Hubs program, centered on the Houston petrochemical region.
- Inside the Singularity
- Book by Daniel M. Sisson on the AI-industrial buildout led by Tesla and SpaceX, tracing it outward from Austin. AustinIO is a companion reference to it.
- Intel 14A
- Intel's 1.4nm-class process technology, in development for high-volume manufacturing. Musk named it as the process target for the Terafab fab in Grimes County on Tesla's first-quarter 2026 earnings call.
- King Ranch wind cluster
- Wind farms on and around the King Ranch in South Texas, part of the coastal wind fleet that tends to produce in afternoon and evening hours, unlike West Texas wind.
- Lancium
- Data center developer whose Clean Campus in Abilene, built with Crusoe, hosts the Stargate Abilene campus for OpenAI and Oracle.
- Lithium hydroxide
- Battery-grade lithium chemical made from spodumene ore or brine, used to make cathode material. Tesla produces it at its Robstown refinery.
- Megablock
- Tesla's larger grid-scale storage product that packages Megapack 3 units into a single block. It is built at Tesla's Brookshire factory in Waller County.
- Megapack
- Tesla's utility-scale battery, rated at several megawatt-hours per unit and built in Lathrop, California, Shanghai, and Brookshire, Texas. Coverage: Texas BESS Concentration.
- Oncor
- Texas's largest electric delivery utility, based in Dallas and serving about 13 million people. Transmission upgrades it built for Samsung Taylor later drew data centers to Williamson County. Coverage: ERCOT Energy Sovereignty.
- Optimus
- Tesla's humanoid robot, developed at Giga Texas, with volume production planned for 2026 and 2027.
- Project Factory One
- Substrate's proposed $10 billion to $13 billion chip fab on a 288-acre reinvestment zone at Texas A&M's RELLIS Campus near Bryan.
- Project Matador
- Fermi America's 11 GW HyperGrid campus in Carson County near Amarillo, combining data centers with on-site gas, solar, and planned nuclear generation. Coverage: ERCOT Energy Sovereignty.
- Project Stargate
- OpenAI, Oracle, and SoftBank's $500 billion US AI infrastructure program, announced in January 2025. Stargate Abilene is its first campus.
- RELLIS Campus
- Texas A&M University System research campus on about 2,000 acres at the former Bryan Air Force Base. It hosts the Texas A&M Semiconductor Institute and the planned Project Factory One site.
- Robotaxi
- A driverless taxi service. In Austin, Tesla runs its own service and Waymo operates through Uber.
- Robstown lithium refinery
- Tesla's lithium hydroxide refinery in Robstown, Nueces County, near Corpus Christi, supplying cathode material for Tesla battery cells.
- Roscoe Wind Complex
- Large wind farm complex in Nolan County and neighboring West Texas counties, part of the West Texas wind fleet.
- Samsung Taylor
- Samsung Foundry's advanced chip fab campus in Taylor, Williamson County, backed by federal CHIPS Act funding. Tesla has contracted it to make its AI6 chips. Coverage: Samsung Taylor.
- SpaceX Bastrop
- SpaceX campus in Bastrop County that builds Starlink user terminals and is adding chip packaging.
- SpaceX McGregor
- SpaceX's rocket development facility in McLennan County, where Raptor engines are built and tested.
- Stampede3
- TACC supercomputer at the University of Texas at Austin, successor to Stampede2.
- Starbase
- SpaceX's Starship production and launch site at Boca Chica in Cameron County, incorporated as the City of Starbase in 2025.
- Stargate Abilene
- The first Project Stargate data center campus, a gigawatt-scale site for OpenAI and Oracle at the Lancium Clean Campus in Abilene. Coverage: ERCOT Energy Sovereignty.
- TACC
- Texas Advanced Computing Center, the University of Texas at Austin supercomputing center that runs Frontera, Stampede3, and Horizon.
- TAMU Semiconductor Institute (TSI)
- Texas A&M Semiconductor Institute, a $226 million research center at RELLIS Campus in Brazos County that broke ground in April 2026. Coverage: Brazos Valley Semiconductor Concentration.
- Terafab Production Fab
- SpaceX's $16.8 billion chip fab under construction at Gibbons Creek Reservoir in Grimes County, on the site of a former coal plant. Coverage: Terafab Production Facility (Grimes County).
- Terafab Research Fab
- Tesla's pilot fab at the Giga Texas North Campus for process development and chip iteration, with an initial commitment of about $3 billion. Coverage: Terafab Research Fab.
- Tesla Giga Texas
- Tesla's campus in eastern Travis County that builds Model Y, Cybertruck, and Cybercab, and houses Optimus development, the Cortex training cluster, and the Terafab Research Fab. Coverage: Tesla Giga Texas.
- Texas CHIPS Act
- Texas's 2023 semiconductor law, passed as House Bill 5174 and Senate Bill 2479, which created the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund and the Texas Semiconductor Innovation Consortium.
- Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ)
- The state environmental agency that issues air, water, and waste permits, including those for fabs and data center power plants.
- Texas Enterprise Fund (TEF)
- The governor's deal-closing grant fund for projects that commit to capital investment and job creation in Texas.
- Texas Enterprise Zone Project Designation
- State designation that refunds sales and use taxes to qualifying projects in exchange for job creation and investment.
- Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB)
- The state agency that oversees Texas public universities and community colleges, including degree and workforce program approvals.
- Texas Semiconductor Innovation Consortium (TSIC)
- University and industry consortium created by the Texas CHIPS Act to coordinate state semiconductor research and pursue federal funding.
- Texas Semiconductor Innovation Fund (TSIF)
- State grant fund created by the Texas CHIPS Act for semiconductor manufacturing and research projects, run by the governor's office.
- Texas Skills Development Fund
- Texas Workforce Commission grant program that pays community colleges to train workers for specific employers.
- Texas Triangle
- The region bounded by Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio-Austin and the I-35, I-45, and I-10 corridors between them, home to most of the state's population and industrial buildout.
- Texas Workforce Commission (TWC)
- The state workforce agency that runs unemployment insurance, job training grants, and the Skills Development Fund.
- Texas Workforce Investment Council (TWIC)
- Governor-appointed council that sets strategic workforce plans across Texas state agencies.
- TI Sherman
- Texas Instruments' 300mm analog chip fab complex in Sherman, Grayson County, backed by federal CHIPS Act funding.
- TIE NGMM
- The Texas Institute for Electronics (TIE) at the University of Texas at Austin, which runs DARPA's Next Generation Microelectronics Manufacturing (NGMM) center for advanced chip packaging. Its CEO is Dwayne LaBrake. Coverage: TIE NGMM.
- Time-to-power
- How long a new site waits for power. A new ERCOT connection can take 5 to 10 years, while brownfield or behind-the-meter sites can cut that to one to three years; time-to-water is the same question for water supply. Coverage: Why Texas: The Structural Logic of AI-Industrial Concentration.
- TXFAME
- Texas Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education, the Texas arm of the FAME earn-and-learn model that pairs community colleges with manufacturers.
- Ultra-pure water (UPW)
- Water treated to 18.2 megohm-cm resistivity for chipmaking, which takes two to four gallons of source water per gallon produced. A large fab can use 5 million to 10 million gallons of UPW per day.
- Winter Storm Uri
- The February 2021 storm that left about 4.5 million Texas homes and businesses without power. It led to Senate Bill 3 (2021) and new weatherization rules for ERCOT. Coverage: ERCOT Energy Sovereignty.
Record
Dataset Record
- Sources
- AustinIO coverage
- Last verified
- Q4 2026