Elon Musk's 'Macrohard': xAI's Ambitious Project to Revolutionize AI-Driven Software and Hardware

Elon Musk Suggests 'Macrohard' Project Will Fuel New Hardware

When he's not battling bugs and robots in Helldivers 2, Michael is reporting on AI, satellites, cybersecurity, PCs, and tech policy. Elon Musk is suggesting that Macrohard, his planned Microsoft rival, won't limit itself to software products, but also try to fuel new hardware. Macrohard will be "profoundly impactful at an immense scale," Musk tweeted on Sunday. "Our goal is to create a company that can do anything short of manufacturing physical objects directly, but will be able to do so indirectly, much like Apple has other companies manufacture their phones." The statement suggests Musk wants his xAI startup to create software, possibly an operating system, to power future hardware. Musk could then hire a contract manufacturer, like Foxconn, to build the hardware. Another possibility is that a third-party vendor partners with xAI or licenses its software, similar to how Microsoft fuels the ecosystem for Windows PCs. A day earlier, Musk tweeted an image that appears to show the Macrohard logo being painted on xAI's upcoming Colossus 2 supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee. Colossus 1 already spans over 200,000 GPUs. However, Colossus 2 will feature over 550,000 GPUs and cost tens of billions of dollars to construct, according to The Wall Street Journal. We've only spotted xAI hiring four roles for the MacroHard project. However, Musk is betting xAI's growing computing power will be able to run AI agents capable of coding and refining cutting-edge software products, which might include gaming. Last week, Musk tweeted that xAI is aiming to release "a great AI-generated game before the end of next year."

Elon Musk Unveils Macrohard AI Supercomputer and Takes an Aim at Microsoft AI Empire

Elon Musk's AI company xAI has revealed its long-rumored Macrohard initiative with the official debut of a data-center cluster in Memphis, Tennessee. The site, codenamed Colossus 2, houses an estimated 100,000 NVIDIA H100 graphics processors, giving it one of the highest single-site AI compute capacities in the United States. The facility marks a crucial step toward Musk's broader ambition of building a universal AI backbone capable of supporting multiple applications, models, and service layers. Although the term "Macrohard" originated online as a meme mocking Microsoft's brand, Elon Musk confirmed in August that he had formally registered it as a trademark. At the time, he described the choice of name as "a bit of a joke, but the work behind it is very real." With the unveiling of the Colossus 2 complex, the project's intent has become clearer. According to Musk, Macrohard aims to become "a company that can do everything" -- a statement analysts interpret as an effort to construct a modular AI platform that other organizations can build upon. Unlike Tesla's hardware manufacturing or SpaceX's aerospace projects, Macrohard is software-centric. It is expected to provide licensable AI frameworks, giving enterprises access to large-scale model training and deployment tools without requiring them to own GPU infrastructure. This structure parallels Microsoft's Windows licensing strategy, which enabled a wide ecosystem of PC manufacturers to flourish. If successful, the Macrohard model could lower the entry barrier for AI-driven companies and shift the economics of large-scale model hosting away from existing cloud incumbents such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon AWS, and Google Cloud. The Memphis installation represents the backbone of this initiative. Each H100 GPU delivers roughly 4 PFLOPS of tensor performance, which places the cluster's potential compute capability in the exascale range. Combined with xAI's proprietary interconnect and scheduling software, Colossus 2 is built to handle both foundational-model training and high-throughput inference tasks. It is also believed that the infrastructure will serve as the computational base for Grok, xAI's conversational AI, and future multimodal systems under Musk's expanding technology umbrella. While some observers see the project as another high-profile attempt to rival Silicon Valley's dominant cloud players, others point to Musk's pattern of leveraging humor to signal ambitious engineering shifts. Macrohard, once merely an internet joke, now appears positioned as a serious technological venture that could redefine how AI platforms are developed and distributed across industries. Source: newsweek

Elon Musk Says xAI's 'MACROHARD' Project Will Be 'Profoundly' Impactful At Massive Scale -- Without Direct Hardware Production: 'Much Like Apple' - Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL)

Elon Musk believes that his "MACROHARD" initiative will have a major impact on a large scale, taking a leaf from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)'s manufacturing model. Musk Outlines Vision For AI-driven Software Automation In a post on X on Sunday, Musk expressed the goal to develop an AI system capable of automating large-scale software development and orchestration, following a model similar to Apple's indirect approach to manufacturing iPhones. "The @xAI MACROHARD project will be profoundly impactful at an immense scale," he wrote. See Also: Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Dogecoin Rebound After Trump Says US 'Wants To Help' China: Analyst Sees No Bear Market Signal Yet - Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust (BTC) Common units of fractional undivided ben The project is built on the Colossus II supercomputer in Memphis, the world's largest AI cluster powered by millions of Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) GPUs. This project has the potential to revolutionize industries by enabling rapid prototyping and automating workflows -- without the need for direct hardware manufacturing. Musk Ramps Up Hiring for New AI Venture, Macrohard Musk's announcement of the MACROHARD project in August follows his previous statements about creating an AI-only software company. He has been ramping up hiring for Macrohard, his newly announced AI software venture, through which he plans to create simulations of software companies like Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). Musk characterized the project as "very real", implying that software companies like Microsoft, which do not produce physical hardware, could theoretically be entirely simulated using AI. This could potentially revolutionize the software industry, enabling rapid development and deployment of software solutions without the need for physical hardware production. Just a few weeks later, in September, Musk began ramping up hiring for Macrohard, his newly announced AI software venture. The project was pitched as a "purely AI software company" with a "tongue-in-cheek name." READ NEXT: Elon Musk's SpaceX Eyes $100 Million-Per-Ton Mars Cargo Missions By 2030 As 11th Starship Launch Approaches Image via Shutterstock Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. AAPLApple Inc$245.400.05%OverviewMSFTMicrosoft Corp$511.660.14%NVDANVIDIA Corp$183.200.02%Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs