gigafactory

English

Etymology

From giga- +‎ factory; coined by Elon Musk's Tesla Motors in 2013.

Noun

gigafactory (plural gigafactories)

  1. (slang) A very large manufacturing facility.
    • 2025 April 9, Jennifer Rankin, “EU to build AI gigafactories in €20bn push to catch up with US and China”, in The Guardian‎[1], →ISSN:
      The new AI “gigafactories” would be much larger, targeting what the commission called “moonshots”: significant innovations in healthcare, biotech, industry, robotics and scientific discovery. […] While the best-performing AI factories have supercomputers equipped with up to 25,000 advanced AI processors, a gigafactory would exceed 100,000 AI processors, the strategy document said. […] EU officials envisage three to five AI gigafactories in the EU at a cost of around €3-5bn each, compared with €600m for the biggest AI factory.
    1. (slang) A factory producing electric batteries at a large scale.
      • 2013, Dana Hull, “Tesla Motors may make its own batteries”, in San Jose Mercury News:
        “The main constraint on our production is really the cells,” Musk explained. “We are not quite ready to make a big announcement on the cell and battery giga factory, but we are exploring a lot of these options right now.”
      • 2014, Charles Fleming, “Tesla Motors picks Nevada for planned $5-billion battery factory site”, in Los Angeles Times:
        Tesla Motors has chosen Nevada for its proposed $5-billion gigafactory battery plant, which it says will drive down the cost of its cars.
      • 2015, Myles Udland, “Tesla's new gigafactory will highlight the 2 biggest labor trends in America”, in Business Insider:
        Tesla is building a massive gigafactory in northern Nevada.
      • 2016, Lydia DePillis, “At Tesla’s gigafactory, a larger battle over worker pay”, in Washington Post:
        Koch thinks the gigafactory should be hiring more people from the community, whether there are incentives or not. But would the Nevadans compromise a bit on wages in order to at least have a job?
      • 2017, Anna Hirtenstein, “Daimler's battery gigafactory begins Europe challenge to Tesla”, in Bloomberg:
        The factory marks the arrival of battery-making gigafactories in Europe that will challenge Tesla, which is building at a plant in Nevada, and opens the way for a quicker shift toward green power for both cars and utilities.

Translations

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