In July 2014, it was announced that Panasonic had reached a basic agreement with Tesla to invest in a factory,[REF][REF][REF] estimated to cost $5 billion [REF].
Tesla held a grand opening on July 29, 2016 of the operational facility, having only three of the final 21 "blocks" of the gigafactory built out, or approximately 14 percent of the final factory size expected by 2020 [REF].