Tesla and SpaceX said Thursday that “Terafab,” the advanced chip factory they are jointly developing, will be built in Grimes County, Texas, outside Houston, and that they will make an initial investment of $16.8 billion in the project.

The factory will be “the largest and most valuable building on Earth by far,” Elon Musk, CEO of both companies, wrote in a post on Thursday. More than 100 million square feet of manufacturing space is planned for the facility, according to SpaceX.

The companies say the facility will employ at least 3,000 people from Grimes and nearby Brazos County.

“The facility will be an advanced semiconductor fab that will bridge the divide between current global chip supply and the compute demand of the future,” a post on SpaceX’s website reads.

The animus behind Terafab is that Musk’s vision of the future — one where millions of robots take over human jobs, robotaxis do all the driving, and satellites become data centers for AI training and inference — requires a phenomenal amount of computing power, far more than what current production rates support.

SpaceX alone has suggested in filings that it may spend as much as $119 billion on the project across a “multi-phase” construction plan — although the company didn’t talk about Terafab at all on its first earnings call earlier this week.

Intel has said it will contribute to the Terafab project, although it’s been cagey about its exact contributions.

“Terafab will be epic in both its mission and in its sheer size, designed to build new compute at an unprecedented scale and speed. A vertically integrated factory with more than 100 million square feet of manufacturing space is planned. This facility will house the manufacturing, packaging, and testing of advanced logic and memory devices,” SpaceX writes on its website.

“Bringing these aspects together in one location will enable fast, recursive improvements and accelerate new compute deployed. Terafab will produce chips optimized for edge computing and inference for use in hardware like Tesla’s Optimus robots and self-driving Cybercabs, along with high-power chips designed for operating SpaceX’s space-based data centers,” the company wrote.

SpaceX said in its post that it is “committing to the use of” water from the local Gibbons Creek Reservoir instead of local groundwater.

The announcement followed a heavily-attended county meeting on Wednesday where hundreds of residents attended and raised concerns about millions of dollars in tax breaks awarded to the project, as well as a lack of transparency.

“We believe this agreement will strengthen our district, expand opportunities, and better prepare our students for their future,” Anderson-Shiro Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Sarah Borowicz said in a statement released by the Texas Governor’s office. “There are defining moments in the life of a school district, and this is one of those moments. Our commitment now is to ensure that every opportunity created through this agreement is managed wisely, transparently, and always with students at the center of every decision.”

As eBay tries to keep up with competitors like Whatnot and TikTok Shop, the online marketplace is making a bigger push into live shopping after seeing record results. 

During its second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday, the company noted that eBay Live’s gross merchandise volume (GMV) jumped about 8 times year-over-year across seven markets, along with increases in viewers, watch time, and items sold. It plans to expand eBay Live to more international markets in the coming weeks and months.

“These results reinforce our confidence that Live can deepen engagement, broaden discovery, and increase velocity across the broader eBay marketplace,” CEO Jamie Iannone told investors. 

However, it’s important to note that eBay didn’t share the exact GMV number, making it difficult to assess how significant the growth is. 

That said, eBay clearly sees Live as a key growth area, and the feedback from sellers and buyers looks promising. eBay reports that over 90% of sellers who stream regularly have seen their GMV grow, and those who use Live sell about three times more than those who don’t. 

Buyers are also spending more. First-time shoppers in the collectibles category are dropping around 70% more than their non-Live shopping counterparts.

eBay first launched Live as invite-only in the U.S. in 2022, then expanded internationally, starting with a beta in the UK in 2024, and it has since rolled it out in countries like Germany, Australia, France, Italy, and Canada. 

Last month, the company moved past its invite-only model and now offers self-service onboarding for eligible sellers in over 300 categories, which include everything from electronics to fashion and collectibles. 

The company also pointed to recent product improvements, including discovery features across its homepage and mobile app to make live events easier to find. Iannone added that eBay also simplified event creation, inventory preparation, and live item management for sellers, while improving “bidding responsiveness” to create smoother, faster livestreams.

The growth comes as live shopping in the U.S. moves beyond a niche trend, with more companies beginning to treat it more seriously rather than a side experiment. Even resale giant StockX recently introduced live shopping capabilities. Whatnot continues to find success, with a valuation of more than $11 billion. Additionally, TikTok Shop is reportedly testing a paid membership that offers free shipping and exclusive discounts.

Google has begun rolling out its August Android 17 update, delivering bug fixes aimed primarily at the Pixel 10 lineup while leaving several older Pixel phones off this month’s stable release.

The update brings the Android 17 security patch level to 2026-08-05 and is available for Pixel 8 and newer models, including the Pixel 8a, Pixel 9 lineup, Pixel 10 lineup and Pixel 10a.

Google said users will receive a notification when the update becomes available, but they can also manually check for it through their device settings. The global build version is CP2A.260805.005, while supported Rogers devices in Canada will receive CP2A.260805.005.A1.

Focused Fixes for Pixel 10 Series

Unlike some monthly updates that introduce major changes, the August patch focuses on bug fixes and performance improvements, particularly for newer Pixel 10 devices.

Google’s update notes list three main improvements:

• A fix for crashes affecting certain gaming apps under specific conditions on Pixel 10, Pixel 10 Pro, Pixel 10 Pro XL, Pixel 10 Pro Fold and Pixel 10a.
• General GPU performance improvements under certain conditions for Pixel 10 models.
• A fix for an issue that could cause the touchscreen to become unresponsive on affected Pixel 10 devices.

Google also patched CVE-2026-0163, a high-severity elevation-of-privilege vulnerability affecting the Video Processing Unit, reducing the risk of unauthorized privilege escalation on affected devices.

Older Pixel models miss this month’s update

Notably absent from this update are the Pixel 6, 6 Pro, 6a, 7, 7 Pro and 7a. Droidlife flagged the gap, pointing out that support consistency for the Pixel 6 line has been slipping and that the phone is expected to lose update support altogether in the coming months.

Meanwhile, Google is also testing further ahead: Android 17 QPR2 Beta 2 is rolling out to Android Beta Program participants on devices as old as the Pixel 6a, according to a report from Mezha. That beta build reportedly restores automatic Bluetooth reconnection, fixes a Gemini-related crash bug, and addresses stray notifications, though Google hasn’t published a formal changelog.

No major security changes, but updates still matter

The August Android 17 patch does not include broader Android security fixes beyond the Pixel-specific bulletin. However, Google continues to recommend that users install the update to receive the latest protections and improvements.

Pixel users can check for the update manually by navigating to Settings > System > Software updates > System update. Because rollout timelines depend on carrier approvals and device models, Google notes that users will receive an automated system notification once the OTA (over-the-air) installation package becomes available for their specific build.

Related News: Leaked Pixel 11 marketing materials point to a new HiLight notification feature, while a claim that one model can reach 55% charge in five minutes has raised questions ahead of the Aug. 12 launch.