Top 10: Largest Factories

For every job directly created in manufacturing, 2.2 jobs are created in other sectors according to the United Nations Industrial Development Organization.

When enormous factories are built, each employing thousands of workers, they can shape landscapes, economies and communities. 

Factories can be symbols of national power and even indicators of the global economy’s future. 

Manufacturing Digital has ranked the world’s largest factories by gross floor area (GFA). 

10. Kentucky Truck Plant

Company: Ford Motor Company
CEO: Jim Farley
Location: Kentucky, US
GFA: ~650,000 m²

Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant produces the Ford F-Series Super Duty and Lincoln Navigator. 

It houses almost 50 km of conveyor belts and employs more than 9,000 people.

The Plant was built as a US$100m project to move heavy truck production from the older Louisville Assembly Plant in 1969 and a major expansion took place in 1997. 

More facilities were added in 2016 including a new paint shop and body shop. 

9. Spring Hill Manufacturing

Company: General Motors
CEO: Mary Barra
Location: Tennessee, US
GFA: ~734,000 m²

Spring Hill Manufacturing has become a high-tech hub capable of producing both internal combustion engine vehicles and electric vehicles on the same line.

Development of the plant began in 1985 before it officially opened in 1990 as the exclusive manufacturing site for the Saturn Corporation. 

It is a comprehensive facility featuring metal stamping, a paint shop, body welding and engine manufacturing.

The plant assembles a range of vehicles including the Cadillac LYRIQ and XTG. 

8. Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky

Company: Toyota Motor Company
CEO: Koji Sato
Location: Kentucky, US
GFA: ~836,000 m²

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Kentucky (TMMK) is the company’s largest vehicle manufacturing plant in the world. 

It employs around 10,000 people and has the capacity to produce 550,000 vehicles and more than 600,000 engines each year. 

Since breaking ground in 1986, Toyota has invested more than US$11bn into the Georgetown complex. 

A paint facility set to be completed in 2027 will reduce carbon emissions by 30% and water usage at the plant. 

7. Gigafactory Texas

Company: Tesla
CEO: Elon Musk
Location: Texas, US
GFA: ~929,000 m²

Construction of Tesla’s Texas Gigafactory began in 2020 and production of the Model Y started before the end of 2021. 

More than 20,000 people are employed at this facility, serving as both the company’s headquarters and largest factory. 

The building is designed as a diamond shape where all manufacturing stages happen under one continuous roof to maximise efficiency.

It produces the Model Y and Cybertruck and is set to mass produce the Cybercab robotaxi. 

6. TSMC Fab 18

Company: TSMC
CEO: Che-Chia Wei
Location: Tainan, Taiwan
GFA: ~950,000 m²

TSMC Fab 18 makes some of the world’s most sophisticated chips, including those found in iPhones, AI accelerators and data centre processors. 

The facility produces chips using 5-nanometer and 3-nanometer process technologies and extreme ultraviolet lithography. 

Total investment in the Fab 18 complex is set to exceed US$60bn.

Once all phases are fully operational, the site is estimated to have an annual capacity of more than a million 12-inch wafers.

TSMC has committed to using 20% renewable energy at the start of volume production, with a goal of reaching 100% by 2040.

5. Samsung Electronics Pyeongtaek Campus

Company: Samsung Electronics
CEO: Lee Jae-yong
Location: Pyeongtaek, South Korea
GFA: ~990,000 m²

A single production line at Samsung’s Pyeongtaek Campus contains a cleanroom area roughly 25 times the size of a football field. 

Construction officially began in May 2015 on the Godeok Industrial Complex and the first line began production in 2017.

This campus is the primary site for manufacturing high-density V-NAND, LPDDR5 DRAM, and HBM4 chips needed for AI applications.

In addition to memory, the campus houses foundry lines that use extreme ultraviolet lithography for sub-5nm logic chip production.

Around 60,000 people are employed across the campus.

4. Fuding Lithium-ion Battery Production Base

Company: CATL
CEO: Zeng Yuqun
Location: Ningde, China
GFA: ~1,900,000 m² 

The Fuding Battery Production Base is the single largest battery production project in CATL’s portfolio. 

When completed in full, it could reach an annual production capacity of 130 GWh. 

The No. 5 Super Factory within the base set a record for construction speed, reaching structural completion in just 4 months and 10 days after starting in October 2024.

Production officially began in December 2021 when the first workshop began manufacturing cells. 

The first phase of the base was designed to create around 10,000 jobs.

3. BYD Hefei Industrial Park

Company: BYD
CEO: Wang Chuanfu
Location: Anhui, China
GFA: ~2,600,000 m²

BYD’s base in Hefei is its largest and most technologically advanced, bigger than its production bases in Shenzhen, Xi'an and Changsha combined.

The total annual capacity for the entire plant across three phases is 1.32 million vehicles.

The first phase began operations in 2022 and was completed in just 10 months. 

Hefei is the primary production site for high-volume models including the Qin PLUS DM-i, the Destroyer 05 and the Song Plus DM-i.

Beyond vehicle assembly, the site produces 400,000 sets of core spare parts annually, including motors, electronic controls and high-voltage wire harnesses.

The full campus is so large that it features its own monorail system to transport workers between different production lines. 

In 2025, the Hefei base contributed significantly to BYD's record-breaking global production of 4.6 million vehicles.

2. Zhengzhou Technology Park

Company: Foxconn
CEO: Young Liu
Location: Henan, China
GFA: ~2,800,000 m²

Nicknamed iPhone City, Foxconn’s Technology Park in Zhengzhou was established in 2010 and produces roughly half of Apple’s smartphones. 

During peak production seasons, it employs up to 350,000 workers. 

Because it functions as a city, the park includes its own dormitories, hospitals, fire brigade, banks, restaurants and shops.

The facility is the largest exporter in the Henan province, accounting for roughly 60% of exports at some times. 

In February 2025, Foxconn broke ground on a new business headquarters in Zhengzhou with an initial investment of US$139m to focus on electric vehicles and energy storage.

Foxconn has also invested around US$82m to build a new battery plant in the park focussed on LFP cells. 

By the end of 2026, the company says it aims to secure 5% of the global EV market. 

1. Wolfsburg Volkswagen Plant

Company: Volkswagen Group
CEO: Oliver Blume
Location: Wolfsburg, Germany
GFA: ~6,500,000 m²

The Wolfsburg plant is Volkswagen Group’s headquarters and employs more than 61,000 people. 

This site features its own 60 kilometre railway network and operates its own cogeneration plants which provide heat and electricity for the city of Wolfsburg. 

The plant was established on May 26, 1938, originally intended to produce the precursor to the Beetle. 

In 1974 it transitioned to producing the Volkswagen Golf, of which more than 20 million units have been built.

In 2021, the company announced the facility was being converted into a multi-platform plant capable of producing internal combustion and electric vehicles.

“The Wolfsburg plant has a clear perspective for the future,” said Thomas Schäfer, CEO of Volkswagen Passenger Cars, in 2025.

“We intend to produce the electric Golf successor on the new SSP platform there, as well as the high-volume electric T-Roc. 

“This way, we will be making Wolfsburg the capital of our new all-electric compact class.”