Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday his companies will build and operate the Terafab artificial intelligence chip complex in Texas, and that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing would at most sublease part of the site.

Terafab is a joint Tesla-SpaceX project to construct a "giant chip factory" for AI chips.

Responding to reports that TSMC would own and operate the plant, he said: "No, we will build and operate the plant, without any doubt." He added TSMC could sublease part if it wished "but that's it."

Musk said last week he had discussed potential cooperation with TSMC on Terafab but provided no further details.