Elon Musk's big move! XAI buys land in Memphis, USA to support data center business

Musk's new action under xAI.

Elon Musk's AI startup xAI, under his umbrella, has expanded its influence in Memphis, Tennessee, in the United States by purchasing a 1 million square foot property (about 92,900 square meters). As per previous commitments, xAI will build the world's largest supercomputer in Memphis. However, the price of this property purchase has not been disclosed.

Latest xAI update!

According to a statement released by the Greater Memphis Chamber on March 7th local time, xAI, a AI company owned by Musk, has purchased a property of 1 million square feet in southwest Memphis, following the expansion of the supercomputer 'Colossus' announced by the company in December last year. The Chamber stated that the new facility will complement xAI's existing business.

It is reported that the property is located in the southwest of Memphis and is the first step in xAI's expansion of its 'Giant' supercomputer program announced in December last year. Since August 8, 2024, the city has been increasing its efforts to host supercomputers.

The Chamber of Commerce said that xAI has leased hundreds of acres of land at the Frank C. Pidgeon Industrial Park in Memphis to develop and expand its core business in the coming years.

"xAI has increased its investment efforts, strengthened the influence of the 'Digital Delta,' and its commitment to innovation," the Chamber said. "The permanent establishment of xAI in Memphis has several benefits, with the most important being that it will enable the city to 'actively participate in the global AI competition of major tech hubs.'"

In addition to creating hundreds of new jobs, the expansion is expected to attract other major artificial intelligence and technology companies, further enhancing Memphis's positioning in the 'Digital Delta' and developing the local economy, the Chamber of Commerce said.

According to reports, the 'Juxiang' supercomputer is currently running on 200,000 NVIDIA H100 chips. The xAI program plans to add another 125,000 H100/H200/GB200 chips later this year.

"Supercomputers are moving towards the scale of super galaxy clusters." The Chamber of Commerce predicts that by 2026, the 'Behemoth' will run on 1 million chips. xAI indicates that once fully operational, the 'Behemoth' will consume 300 megawatts of power.

However, environmental groups have expressed concerns about the energy consumption of the xAI data center.

As part of a separate agreement with the Memphis City Council, xAI also leased 13 acres of land to build an $80 million Colossus Water Recycle Plant.

The chamber said it would help relieve pressure on Memphis's aquifer and protect 4.75 million gallons of water annually.

Full of confidence in expansion

In December 2024, xAI AI company announced the expansion of its supercomputer "Giant" in Memphis, with an expected GPU count exceeding 1 million, and in cooperation with NVIDIA, Dell, and Supermicro Computer (SMC) to establish a global AI center in Memphis. With xAI's expansion, NVIDIA, Dell, and Supermicro Computer will also establish operational bases in Memphis.

This expansion is part of xAI's competition with rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic. Currently, xAI's generative AI model, Grok, has become one of the key features of X (formerly Twitter) platform, and is gradually expanding into consumer applications and developer tools.

As xAI plans to further integrate its data resources with companies such as Tesla and SpaceX, it is expected to significantly enhance the efficiency of related technology research and development. It is reported that Tesla will use the upgraded Memphis data center to improve autonomous driving technology.

Prior to this, xAI also released its more powerful Grok 3 models, which Musk referred to as the "smartest artificial intelligence on Earth." Grok 3 has more than 10 times the computing power of Grok 2. Currently, the beta version of Grok 3 has been launched for X Premium users on social media platforms.

The confidence of xAI's expansion comes from its recent massive financing. In December 2024, xAI announced the completion of a $6 billion Series C financing, with a valuation of $40 billion, bringing its total fundraising amount to $12 billion. This funding will be used to drive the development of xAI's artificial intelligence, including its flagship generative AI model, Grok.

(Source: Securities Times)

Source: East Money

Author: Securities Times