Explore 29 sites across 4 country codes: gigafactories, launch pads, tunnels, headquarters, AI infrastructure, research labs, and one notional crater on Mars.
The map is not just geography. It is the operating structure: Tesla's manufacturing spine, SpaceX's launch and test network, Neuralink's clinical hardware loop, Boring's tunnel deployments, xAI's compute footprint, and historical offices where major control shifts happened. Use this section as the readable field guide after exploring the map.
6 sites catalogued.
Announced in 2014 and opened in phases from 2016, Gigafactory Nevada is a joint venture with Panasonic. It produces lithium-ion battery cells, battery packs, and the Powerwall / Powerpack / Megapack energy storage products. At full build-out, the factory was designed to produce more lithium-ion batteries annually than the entire world's prior output. It spans roughly 5.3 million sq ft of operational space.
Tesla broke ground in January 2019 and achieved first deliveries of the Model 3 in December of the same year — a record for a greenfield auto plant. Gigafactory Shanghai produces Model 3 and Model Y for China and export markets. It became the world's single largest EV production facility by units and accounts for roughly half of Tesla's global output.
Gigafactory Texas (also called 'Gigafactory Austin' or 'Giga Texas') opened in April 2022 when Tesla relocated its corporate headquarters from Palo Alto. The factory produces Model Y and Cybertruck. It sits on a 2,500-acre site along the Colorado River east of Austin. The Cybertruck event in November 2023 took place here. Elon Musk has described the campus as a 'city within a city'.
The Fremont factory is Tesla's oldest and most storied manufacturing site. It was originally the NUMMI plant, a GM–Toyota joint venture. Tesla purchased it in 2010 for $42M as GM exited bankruptcy. Today it produces the Model S, Model X, and Model 3 for the US and global markets. The factory famously became the center of 'production hell' during Model 3 ramp, and Elon Musk personally slept on the factory floor during the crisis.
Located in Grünheide near Berlin, Gigafactory Europe began deliveries in March 2022. The factory produces the Model Y with a structural battery pack (4680 cell architecture in later phases). It is Tesla's first European manufacturing site and was controversially fast-tracked through German permitting. The surrounding Grünheide forest and local water supply issues generated significant community opposition.
Originally built and announced by SolarCity as its high-volume solar panel factory, the Buffalo facility was taken over by Tesla after acquiring SolarCity in 2016. It produces Solar Roof tiles and solar panels, as well as some Autopilot hardware components. The factory was a centerpiece of SolarCity's 'Riverbend' expansion, subsidized by New York State under the Buffalo Billion economic development program.
6 sites catalogued.
Launch Complex 39A is one of the most historically significant launch pads in history — it launched Apollo 11 and numerous Space Shuttle missions. SpaceX leased LC-39A from NASA in 2014 for a 20-year term. SpaceX has used it for Falcon Heavy launches and Commercial Crew missions. The pad features SpaceX's reusable launch infrastructure overlaid on the historic NASA structure.
OLP-A at Starbase is the world's most powerful launch pad, built to support the Starship/Super Heavy stack. The 480-foot 'Mechazilla' integration tower features robotic catch arms (nicknamed 'chopstick arms') that were used to catch a returning Super Heavy booster in October 2024 — a world first. The pad includes a water-cooled flame deflector, propellant storage, and integration facilities.
Starbase is SpaceX's primary development, production, and launch site for the Starship/Super Heavy system. SpaceX began developing the South Texas launch site in 2014. The site features the 'Mechazilla' launch tower (officially 'Mechazilla' catch arm system), Starship production bays, and the Orbital Launch Pad. SpaceX officially renamed the facility 'Starbase' and is pursuing incorporation as a company town in Cameron County. Integrated Flight Tests 1–6 launched from here between 2023 and 2024.
LC-40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station is SpaceX's highest-frequency launch pad. It was destroyed in the September 2016 AMOS-6 pad explosion and rebuilt from scratch, returning to service in December 2017. Since then it has launched hundreds of Falcon 9 missions including Starlink, commercial satellites, and NASA cargo Dragon missions.
Space Launch Complex 4E at Vandenberg Space Force Base is SpaceX's primary West Coast launch site. Polar and sun-synchronous orbits, including Starlink deployment missions and government payloads, launch from here. The adjacent SLC-4W serves as SpaceX's West Coast landing zone for returning Falcon 9 boosters. Vandenberg's location allows launches over the Pacific without overflying populated land.
Landing Zone 1 (LZ-1) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was the site of SpaceX's first successful booster landing on December 21, 2015 — a historic milestone for reusable rocketry. LZ-1 and LZ-2 are converted from the old SLC-13 pad. Landing here means the booster returns to the launch area rather than landing on a drone ship at sea, enabling faster turnaround.
1 site catalogued.
Mars Base Alpha is SpaceX's conceptual name for the first permanent human settlement on Mars. Elon Musk has repeatedly described the initial base as a collection of pressurized domes, followed by terraformed underground habitats. Jezero Crater (lat 18.5°N, lng 77.5°E) is used as a notional coordinate — NASA's Perseverance rover landed here in 2021 for its scientific value. SpaceX's plan involves 1,000+ Starship flights to deliver the 1 million people Musk believes are needed for a self-sustaining colony.
9 sites catalogued.
SpaceX has operated out of a repurposed Boeing factory in Hawthorne, CA since its founding in 2002. The 550,000 sq ft facility houses corporate headquarters, rocket manufacturing, and engineering. Falcon 9 and Dragon spacecraft are manufactured here. The Hawthorne campus is notable for its integration of offices and factory floor — engineers work directly alongside technicians. Elon Musk's personal office and the SpaceX war room are located here.
Twitter's iconic San Francisco headquarters at 1355 Market Street was acquired by Elon Musk in October 2022 for $44 billion. Musk famously walked into the building carrying a sink ('let that sink in'). He immediately fired the executive team, cut roughly 75% of staff, and rebranded the company to 'X' in July 2023, replacing the blue bird logo with a black 'X'. The building serves as X's global HQ.
Neuralink, co-founded by Musk in 2016, operates its primary research and production facility in Fremont, California — the same city as Tesla's main factory. The Fremont facility houses the surgical robot (R1), the N1 chip manufacturing line, and the neuroscience research team. Neuralink received FDA approval for human trials in 2023 and implanted its first human subject in January 2024. The facility has faced controversy over animal testing practices.
Elon Musk founded X.com at 394 University Avenue in Palo Alto in March 1999. X.com was an online financial services company that merged with Confinity (Peter Thiel's company) in March 2000 to form what eventually became PayPal. Musk was ousted as CEO in September 2000 while on his honeymoon, but retained a major stake. PayPal was sold to eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion; Musk's share netted him ~$180 million.
Tesla moved its corporate headquarters to Texas in late 2021, with formal ceremonies at the April 2022 Gigafactory Texas opening. The Austin HQ co-locates executive offices with production, embodying Musk's philosophy that leadership should be on the factory floor. Austin was chosen over Nashville as an alternative HQ site.
Zip2 Corporation was co-founded by Elon and Kimbal Musk in 1995 in Palo Alto. The company provided online city guide software to newspapers. At 390 Sherman Avenue (later confirmed addresses in Palo Alto), the Musk brothers famously slept in the office to save money. Compaq acquired Zip2 in February 1999 for $307 million in cash; Elon's 7% stake netted him approximately $22 million.
SolarCity, co-founded by Elon Musk's cousins Lyndon and Peter Rive with Elon as chairman, operated its corporate headquarters in Foster City, California. SolarCity became the largest US residential solar installer. Tesla acquired SolarCity in 2016 for approximately $2.6 billion in an all-stock deal that was criticized as a bailout of a financially troubled company. Musk successfully defended the acquisition in Delaware court in 2022.
Tesla's corporate headquarters from 2010 to 2021, located at 3500 Deer Creek Road in Palo Alto. The low-rise campus served as HQ during the company's hyper-growth phase including the Model S, X, and 3 launches. Elon Musk announced the HQ move to Austin in October 2021, citing California's high costs and bureaucratic drag.
The Boring Company relocated its headquarters to Pflugerville, Texas (north of Austin) in 2021 as part of the broader Musk-empire Texas migration. The Pflugerville campus includes TBC's machine shop, Prufrock boring machine development facilities, and corporate offices. Elon Musk is based in Austin, making Pflugerville convenient for hands-on oversight.
1 site catalogued.
xAI's 'Colossus' supercluster in Memphis, Tennessee was announced in mid-2024 and brought online in a record ~122 days. The initial phase comprised 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs; a Phase 2 expansion to 200,000 GPUs (adding H200s) was underway by late 2024. Colossus trains the Grok family of AI models. The facility sits inside a repurposed industrial building and draws significant power from the Memphis light, gas & water grid, generating controversy over the city's energy capacity.
2 sites catalogued.
The Las Vegas Convention Center Loop opened in May 2021 and is The Boring Company's first commercial tunnel system. It uses Tesla Model X and Model 3 vehicles to shuttle passengers between three stations beneath the LVCC campus. The loop extends 1.7 miles and can theoretically transport 4,400 passengers per hour. It is the precursor to a proposed wider Vegas Loop connecting the Strip to downtown.
The Boring Company's first tunnel was dug under SpaceX's Hawthorne campus parking lot as a proof of concept. The 1.14-mile tunnel was publicly demoed in December 2018 and carried a Tesla Model X on a modified sled. The project established the company's core technology and demonstrated that pedestrian/vehicle tunnel boring could be done more cheaply than traditional transit tunnels. The tunnel was closed in late 2019.
1 site catalogued.
The McGregor test site has been SpaceX's main engine development and static fire facility since the early 2000s. All Merlin, Raptor, and Draco engine families were tested and qualified here. Falcon 9 first-stage boosters undergo static fire tests at McGregor before shipment to launch sites. The facility spans hundreds of acres and includes multiple vertical test stands.
2 sites catalogued.
xAI, founded by Elon Musk in March 2023, operates its primary engineering and research team out of the Bay Area. The team behind Grok and the Colossus infrastructure is headquartered here. The office draws from former DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Brain, and Tesla AI researchers.
Tesla's Tilburg facility in the Netherlands serves as the company's European delivery and final-assembly center. Vehicles shipped from Fremont and Shanghai are completed and prepared for EU delivery here. Tilburg also handles European customer delivery logistics and has a service center. It is Tesla's largest European operations site outside Gigafactory Berlin.
1 site catalogued.
Elon Musk notably downsized to a $50,000 prefab Boxabl Casita home at Starbase, Boca Chica, Texas. He has repeatedly stated that owning no houses keeps him focused and reduces complexity. The home is located in the small community of Boca Chica Village, near SpaceX's launch site, allowing Musk to be on-site for Starship development. SpaceX has been buying up properties in the village as it expands.
Ask anything about Elon — companies, predictions, tweets, controversies, vehicles, family.