Musk’s xAI plans massive expansion of AI supercomputer in Memphis

ELON Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) startup xAI plans to expand its Memphis, Tennessee, supercomputer to house at least one million graphics processing units (GPUs), the Greater Memphis Chamber said on Wednesday (Dec 4), as xAI races to compete against rivals such as OpenAI.

The move represents a massive expansion for the supercomputer called Colossus, which currently has 100,000 GPUs to train xAI’s chatbot called Grok.

As part of the expansion, Nvidia, which supplies the GPUs, and Dell and Super Micro, which have assembled the server racks for the computer, will establish operations in Memphis, the chamber said.

Colossus is a critical component of advancing Musk’s AI efforts, as the billionaire has deepened his rivalry against OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman. Last month, Musk expanded his lawsuit against the ChatGPT-maker, arguing that OpenAI and Microsoft illegally sought to monopolise the AI market.

The plan to expand the xAI supercomputer ten-fold will likely raise environmental concerns, as activists and lawmakers have scrutinised the growing number of data centres for their vast energy consumption. In August, the Southern Environmental Law Center called on local Tennessee officials to verify whether xAI was using gas turbines to help power its supercomputer without the required air permits. REUTERS