Musk's xAI acquires third building, pushing AI compute capacity to a massive 2 gigawatts
10 Sources
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Musk purchases third building at Memphis site to expand xAI's training capacity to a monstrous 2 gigawatts -- announcement comes days after Musk vows to have 'more AI compute than everyone else'
Elon Musk has revealed that xAI has purchased a third building in its Memphis, Tennessee, site near the Colossus 2 data center to expand its training capacity. The billionaire said on X that the structure will be named 'MACROHARDRR', an extension of his 'Macrohard' project, wherein Musk intends to
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Musk's xAI to Expand 'Colossus' Data Center, Information Reports
Elon Musk's xAI is planning an expansion of its massive data center complex in Memphis, and has purchased a third building in the area that will bring the company's artificial intelligence computing capacity to almost 2 gigawatts, the billionaire wrote Tuesday in a post on X. Musk has already
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Musk's xAI buys third building to expand AI compute power
Dec 30 (Reuters) - Elon Musk said on Tuesday his artificial intelligence startup xAI has bought a third building to expand its infrastructure, aiming to boost training capacity to nearly 2 gigawatts of compute power. The latest expansion underscores xAI's ambitious push to compete more effectively
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Elon Musk grows xAI's Colossus supercomputer with third data center
Musk said the newly acquired building is called "MACROHARDRR," a name he mentioned in his X post on Dec. 30 without revealing its exact location. The expansion is aimed at boosting xAI's ability to train larger and more advanced AI models, as the company seeks to compete more directly with
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Elon Musk reveals plan to expand xAI's 'Colossus' data center to 2 gigawatts - SiliconANGLE
Elon Musk reveals plan to expand xAI's 'Colossus' data center to 2 gigawatts Elon Musk's xAI Corp. is looking to expand its sprawling artificial intelligence data center complex in Memphis after purchasing a third building at the site. It'll house thousands of new servers that cater to AI models
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Elon Musk's xAI Buys Third Building to Expand AI Compute Power
xAI's supercomputer cluster, Colossus, is the largest in the world Elon Musk said on Tuesday his artificial intelligence startup xAI has bought a third building to expand its infrastructure, aiming to boost training capacity to nearly 2 gigawatts of compute power. The latest expansion underscores
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Elon Musk's xAI buys third building to expand AI compute power
Elon Musk said his AI firm xAI has bought a third building, 'MACROHARDRR', to expand computing power for training models. The move supports plans for a huge supercomputer near Memphis that could reach nearly two gigawatts. The startup is planning to start turning the newly purchased warehouse into
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Elon Musk Says xAI Purchased Third Building For Massive AI Expansion As Company Takes On OpenAI, Anthropic: Property Name Takes Dig At Microsoft - Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)
On Tuesday, Elon Musk said his artificial intelligence startup xAI has acquired a third building as it races to dramatically scale computing power and challenge leading AI rivals. xAI Adds Third Facility To Scale AI Infrastructure Musk said that xAI has purchased a third building to expand its AI
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Elon Musk's xAI buys building near Memphis for third data center By Investing.com
Investing.com -- Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI has purchased a building for its third large-scale data center outside Memphis, Tennessee, as part of its goal to deploy 1 million chips for its AI models, The Information reported on Tuesday. According to property records, an xAI
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Musk's xAI buys third building to expand AI compute power
Dec 30 (Reuters) - Elon Musk said on Tuesday his artificial intelligence startup xAI has bought a third building to expand its infrastructure, aiming to boost training capacity to nearly 2 gigawatts of compute power. The latest expansion underscores xAI's ambitious push to compete more effectively
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Elon Musk announced that xAI has purchased a third building called MACROHARDRR near its Memphis Colossus supercomputer complex, expanding AI training compute capacity to nearly 2 gigawatts. The ambitious expansion positions xAI to compete more aggressively with OpenAI and other AI leaders, though it raises concerns about energy consumption and environmental impact in surrounding communities.
xAI Purchases Third Building to Expand AI Infrastructure
Elon Musk revealed on Tuesday that xAI has acquired a third building near its Memphis, Tennessee site, pushing the company's AI compute capacity to nearly 2 gigawatts
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. The new facility, dubbed MACROHARDRR, is located in Southaven, Mississippi, adjacent to the Colossus 2 data center currently under construction3
. A gigawatt provides enough electricity for approximately 750,000 U.S. homes, meaning this expansion will require power equivalent to roughly 1.5 million households2
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Source: ET
The MACROHARDRR name appears to be an extension of Musk's 'Macrohard' project, where he intends to build software from the ground up using AI agents
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. According to property records and sources familiar with the project, xAI plans to begin converting the newly purchased warehouse into a data center in 20263
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.Memphis Expansion Aims to Compete with OpenAI
The latest expansion underscores xAI's aggressive push to compete with industry leaders like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude by training increasingly advanced models
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. Musk founded xAI in 2023 as a rival to OpenAI, which he initially co-founded before falling out with CEO Sam Altman5
. The company is best known for Grok, its generative AI chatbot deeply integrated with the X platform, allowing access to real-time information5
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Source: Tom's Hardware
The Colossus supercomputer cluster in Memphis has been described by Musk as the largest in the world
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. xAI is planning to expand Colossus to house at least one million graphics processing units (GPUs), a level of compute capacity that places the project among the most ambitious AI training efforts underway4
. Musk has stated that Colossus 2 alone will eventually have 550,000 Nvidia chips, with total costs running into tens of billions of dollars2
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Source: Interesting Engineering
Nvidia has reportedly signed a deal to deliver the needed GPUs for the site, helping Musk reach his goal of acquiring 50 million H100-equivalent GPUs in the next five years
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. Musk's ultimate goal is to have more AI compute than everyone else combined, challenging Microsoft and other AI titans1
.Energy Consumption and Power Infrastructure Challenges
To meet the massive energy consumption demands, both the new data center and Colossus 2 are located close to a natural gas power plant that xAI is building in the area, along with access to other power sources
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. xAI has already set its sights on installing a gas turbine facility set to supply 460MW from natural gas1
. Musk has confirmed he bought an overseas power plant and is shipping it to the U.S. to power Colossus 21
.The facility will also require vast amounts of water to cool servers and infrastructure. According to reports, xAI expects to use millions of gallons of water per day at the site
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. To address environmental concerns, xAI announced plans in February to build a new wastewater treatment center near Colossus at a cost of around $80 million, enabling the company to reuse approximately 13 million gallons of wastewater per day5
.The expansion has drawn criticism from environmental activists and local residents. A July 2025 investigation by the Tennessee Lookout reported that the Colossus facility was operating 33 methane-powered gas turbines despite holding permits for only 15 at the time
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. The supercomputer facility is located in a predominantly Black, low-income Memphis community with historically high levels of pollution-related illness4
.Related Stories
Aggressive Fundraising to Support AI Training Compute Capacity
xAI has embarked on aggressive fundraising efforts to finance its ambitious projects. The company was in talks to raise $20 billion in debt and equity earlier this year, in part to buy Nvidia processors for Colossus 2
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. In July, xAI announced it had raised $10 billion in capital through equity funding and loans5
. Since then, the company has held talks with Saudi Arabia's PIF sovereign wealth fund and other investors over a further $20 billion raise that would bring its value to over $170 billion5
.xAI is reportedly burning through over a billion dollars a month as it races to build the most advanced AI on the planet
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. Although xAI is a relatively new entrant to the AI race, it quickly caught up with more established players like OpenAI due to significant resources being poured into the project by Elon Musk1
. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called the first Colossus project a "superhuman" effort, especially after the facility began operation after just 19 days—a feat that usually takes four years1
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