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On Thu, 5 Dec, 12:08 AM UTC
10 Sources
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Supermicro to help Musk scale xAI supercomputer to a million GPUs -- Supermicro will set up local operations in Memphis to facilitate operations
Supermicro CEO Charles Liang announced on X (formerly Twitter) that he will set up shop near xAI's Colossus AI supercomputer to help Musk achieve his dream of one million GPUs. Liang said that he plans to establish "local operations/production, validation, service and support." Although it has been previously reported that Elon Musk shifted $6 billion worth of AI server orders from Supermicro to its competitors because of its financial problems, it seems xAI still plans to order from the beleaguered server supplier. While Nvidia is likely the biggest winner behind Musk's planned one million GPUs, which will most probably be powered by a mix of Hopper and Blackwell GPUs, it will also require all the accouterments needed to run a complete supercomputer. This includes servers and liquid-cooling solutions, which Supermicro is known for building. And with such a massive order, it does make sense for Liang and his company to put up local operations to support Musk's 'Gigafactory of Compute'. This move will benefit xAI's operations, as Supermicro would be able to deliver its products and services to such a massive AI server with much greater efficiency. But aside from that, it would also mean that the company would invest millions, if not billions, of dollars in Memphis and the surrounding area to get its operations up and running in support of the Colossus AI supercomputer. An investment of this scale would greatly benefit the city and the state of Tennessee, bringing in a lot of money in investments and likely creating several thousand new jobs, both directly and indirectly. However, some of the surrounding communities are also concerned about the negative impact of having such a power-hungry industry setting up shop in their area. Some experts estimate that the 100,000 H100 GPUs Musk currently has in his Memphis facility need 155MW to run. While it already has approval from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to receive 150MW, some community members are concerned that this huge demand will cause energy prices to spike for residential consumers and that the quick solution to this problem would be to build a new gas plant. After all, if Musk brings an additional 900,000 GPUs online in the coming years, then his AI facility would likely require over 1.5GW of power. And if other corporations, like Supermicro, set up shop locally, they would need power, too, thus putting a lot of strain on the local electricity supply grid. The massive power requirements of AI training have pushed several tech companies to invest in nuclear power. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Oracle have already signed contracts to develop small modular reactors or restart old large nuclear plants. Even Meta is getting in on the action, having recently released a request for proposals. However, it seems that Elon hasn't made any plans to invest in nuclear power just yet. This development is good news for the labor force in Memphis and the state of Tennessee, especially as it has the potential to bring in new jobs and investments in the state and city. However, it must also consider the impact of such a power-hungry industry entering the area.
[2]
Elon Musk's xAI Memphis Supercomputer Eyes Expansion to 1 Million GPUs
Not content with just 200,000 GPUs, Elon Musk's xAI startup plans to expand its Colossus supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee, to one day house at least a million GPUs. The announcement was made during a luncheon hosted by the Greater Memphis Chamber, which helped get the xAI facility built. "The company is setting the stage for Memphis to become the global epicenter of artificial intelligence," the chamber said. "The expansion, already underway, will incorporate a minimum of one million Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), marking the largest capital investment in the region's history." The Chamber didn't provide a timeframe, but xAI will likely buy the GPUs from Nvidia, which already supplied 100,000 H100 cards to the first stage of Colossus this summer. Normally, companies take years to build a supercomputer, but Musk's team assembled the GPUs into a working supercomputer in about four months. The company has since expanded Colossus to 200,000 Nvidia H100 and H200 GPUs with the goal of reaching 300,000 GPUs by next summer. The announcement underscores the lengths Musk is taking to create cutting-edge AI programs to beat the competition, including OpenAI. The Grok chatbot came out of xAI; it can also generate images and program computer code. While Grok is mostly limited to X Premium subscribers, xAI is preparing to release a standalone consumer app to rival OpenAI's ChatGPT, according to the Wall Street Journal, which says Musk has an "obsessive focus on building bigger data centers faster than his competitors." Others -- including Meta, OpenAI, and Microsoft -- have also acquired huge quantities of Nvidia's latest GPUs. In January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg projected his company would have "around 600,000 H100 equivalents of compute" by the end of this year. In the meantime, the Greater Memphis Chamber noted that Nvidia, Dell, and Supermicro Computer -- which all helped build Colossus -- plan to establish operations in the city. However, the rise of Colossus has also called for investments in infrastructure to power and cool the supercomputer, which has sparked environmental concerns.
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Elon Musk's xAI plans 10x expansion of Colossus AI cluster, with over 1 million AI GPUs
TL;DR: Elon Musk's xAI startup plans to expand its Colossus AI supercomputer by tenfold, reaching over 1 million GPUs. The expansion involves increasing the facility size in Memphis, Tennessee, with support from NVIDIA, Dell, and Supermicro. The project is costly, with significant expenses for GPUs, infrastructure, and operations. Elon Musk's xAI startup has promised to expand its Colossus AI supercomputer by 10x its computational power, with over 1 million GPUs in total... yes, 1,000,000+ AI GPUs. xAI built Colossus in just 3 months earlier this year, with the world's largest AI supercomputer featuring over 100,000 x NVIDIA IA GPUs operating at once, training Grok for X, and more. The expansion project has already started, with the first step being increasing the size of the facility in Memphis, Tennessee. NVIDIA, Dell, and Supermicro are going to establish operations in Memphis in order to support xAI's extension of Colossus, while FT reports that the chamber of commerce saying that it would establish an "xAI special operations team" in order to "provide round-the-clock concierge service to the company". The expansion up to over 1 million AI GPUs isn't going to be cheap, not by a long shot, as the new B200 and GB200 chips are expensive, and Elon was just provided with priority access to NVIDIA GB200 AI chips in January 2025 at a cost of $1.08 billion. But, for 1 million+ AI GPUs would be magnitudes more expensive: tens of billions of dollars. It's not just the raw AI GPU costs, but the associated costs of expanding xAI's new Colossus supercomputer in terms of building it, powering it, and cooling the vast array of AI servers.
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Elon Musk's xAI plans expansion of AI supercomputer 'Colossus'
Computing giant Nvidia will also establish operations in the US city of Memphis to support Musk's AI ambitions. Elon Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) start-up xAI plans to expand its supercomputer to incorporate more than one million graphics processing units (GPUs), it was announced on Wednesday, as the company aims to compete against generative AI (GenAI) rivals such as OpenAI. Musk's supercomputer, "Colossus," was built earlier this year in Memphis, Tennessee, in three months and currently has 100,000 Nvidia GPUs to train xAI's chatbot, Grok. AI companies are in a race to build large clusters of GPUs, or interconnected chips, which can lead to more capable AI models developed at faster rates. Nvidia, Dell, and Supermicro Computer would also establish operations in Memphis to support the expansion, the city's chamber of commerce said, adding that they would establish an "xAI special operations team" to "provide round-the-clock concierge service to the company". 'Only one person could do that' In October, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang praised xAI in an interview with B2g Pod, saying that Colossus was a feat of engineering. "As far as I know, there's only one person in the world who could do that; Elon is singular in his understanding of engineering and construction and large systems and marshalling resources; it's just unbelievable," Huang said. However, the battle for bigger chip clusters comes with challenges such as the resources needed to cool the power-hungry technology. No details have been given about the energy resources that it would need, nor where the energy would come from. As well as stockpiling Nvidia GPUs, xAI - like many other AI companies - is also developing its own AI chips. Musk has been working on Dojo, Tesla's custom-built supercomputer to train its autonomous vehicle capability, since 2023.
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Elon Musk plans to scale the xAI supercomputer to a million GPUs -- currently at over 100,000 H100 GPUs and counting
Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, is set to expand its Colossus supercomputer to over one million GPUs, reports the Financial Times. Thus, the expanded Colossus machine will be one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. However, it will require significant investments, supply, and infrastructure availability. Colossus, which is used to train the large language model behind Grok, already operates over 100,000 H100 processors from Nvidia and is set to double the number of GPUs shortly to become the largest supercomputer in a single building. The plan to increase the number of GPUs is underway, though this one is going to take a sizeable amount of time and effort. To accomplish the mission, xAI is working with Nvidia, Dell, and Supermicro. Furthermore, Memphis, Tennessee, where Colossus is located, has reportedly established a dedicated xAI operations team to aid the endeavor. It is unclear whether xAI plans to use current-generation Hopper or next-generation Blackwell GPUs during the expansion. The Blackwell platform is expected to scale better than Hopper, so it makes more sense to use the upcoming technology instead of the current one. But in any case, getting the 800,000 - 900,000 AI GPUs is hard, as demand for Nvidia's products is overwhelming. Another challenge is to make 1,000,000 GPUs work in concert with maximum efficiency and, again, Blackwell would make more sense here. The financial requirements of this expansion are colossal, of course. Acquiring GPUs -- costing tens of thousands of dollars each -- alongside infrastructure for power and cooling, could push investment into the tens of billions. xAI has raised $11 billion this year and recently secured another $5 billion. Currently, the company is valued at $45 billion. Unlike rivals such as OpenAI, which partners with Microsoft for computing power, and Anthropic, supported by Amazon, xAI is independently building its supercomputing capacity. This strategy puts the company in a high-stakes race to secure advanced AI hardware, but given the scale of xAI's investments, this actually puts Musk's company ahead of its rivals. Despite its rapid progress, xAI has faced criticism for allegedly bypassing planning permissions and the project's strain on the regional power grid. To address concerns the company has emphasized grid stability measures, including deploying Tesla's megapack technology to manage power demands. While xAI's focus on hardware has earned acclaim, its commercial offerings remain limited. Grok reportedly lags behind leading models like ChatGPT and Google's Gemini in both sophistication and user base. However, investors view Colossus as a foundational achievement that demonstrates xAI's ability to rapidly deploy cutting-edge technology.
[6]
Musk's xAI plans massive expansion of AI supercomputer in Memphis
Dec 4 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's artificial intelligence 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, as xAI races to compete against rivals like 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 (NVDA.O), opens new tab, which supplies the GPUs, and Dell (DELL.N), opens new tab and Super Micro (SMCI.O), opens new tab, which have assembled the server racks for the computer, will establish operations in Memphis, the chamber said in a statement. 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 monopolize the AI market. The plan to expand the xAI supercomputer tenfold will likely raise environmental concerns, as activists and lawmakers have scrutinized the growing number of data centers 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. Reporting by Sheila Dang in Austin; Editing by Daniel Wallis Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Artificial IntelligenceArtificial Intelligence
[7]
Musk's xAI plans massive expansion of AI supercomputer in Memphis
(Reuters) - Elon Musk's artificial intelligence 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, as xAI races to compete against rivals like 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 in a statement. 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 monopolize the AI market. The plan to expand the xAI supercomputer tenfold will likely raise environmental concerns, as activists and lawmakers have scrutinized the growing number of data centers 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. (Reporting by Sheila Dang in Austin; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
[8]
Elon Musk plans to expand Colossus AI supercomputer tenfold
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence start-up xAI has pledged to expand its Colossus supercomputer tenfold to incorporate more than 1mn graphics processing units, in an effort to close the gap with rivals such as Google, OpenAI and Anthropic. Colossus, built in just three months earlier this year, is believed to be the largest supercomputer in the world, operating a cluster of more than 100,000 interconnected Nvidia GPUs. The chips are used to train Musk's chatbot Grok, which is less advanced and has fewer users than market-leader ChatGPT or Google's Gemini. Work has already begun to increase the size of the facility in Memphis, Tennessee, according to a statement from the Greater Memphis Chamber on Wednesday. Nvidia, Dell and Supermicro Computer would also establish operations in Memphis to support the expansion, the chamber of commerce said, while it would establish an "xAI special operations team" to "provide round-the-clock concierge service to the company". AI companies are scrambling to secure GPUs and access to data centres to supply the computing power needed to train and run their frontier large-language models. OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT, has an almost $14bn partnership with Microsoft that includes credits for computing power. Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, has received $8bn in investment from Amazon and will soon be given access to a new cluster of more than 100,000 of its specialised AI chips. Rather than form partnerships, Musk, the world's richest man, has used his power and influence within the tech sector to build his own supercomputing capacity, although he is playing catch-up after founding xAI barely more than a year ago. The trajectory has been steep -- the start-up is valued at $45bn and recently raised another $5bn. Musk is in fierce competition with OpenAI, which he helped co-found with Sam Altman among others in 2015. The pair subsequently fell out and Musk is now suing OpenAI, seeking to block its transition from a non-profit to a more traditional enterprise. An investor in xAI said the speed with which Musk had created Colossus was the "feather in the cap" of the AI company, despite it having limited commercial product offerings. "He has built the most powerful supercomputer in the world in three months," the investor said. Jensen Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, said in October that "there was only one person in the world who could do that". Huang has referred to Colossus as "easily the fastest supercomputer on the planet as one cluster", and said a data centre of this size would typically take three years to build. The Colossus project has attracted controversy for the speed in which it was built. Some of have accused it of skirting planning permissions and criticised the demands that it places on the region's power grid. "We're not just leading from the front; we're accelerating progress at an unprecedented pace while ensuring the stability of the grid utilising megapack technology," Brent Mayo, xAI's senior manager for site builds and infrastructure, said at an event in Memphis, according to the statement.
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Musk's xAI to expand supercomputer 10-fold to over one million GPUs By Investing.com
The Greater Memphis Chamber's Annual Chairman's Luncheon was the stage for a significant announcement by xAI, detailing the expansion of their "Colossus" supercomputer facility. This development promises to position Memphis as a central hub for artificial intelligence on a global scale. xAI, a company focused on leveraging artificial intelligence to expedite human scientific discovery, has begun the process of expanding its supercomputer to include over one million Graphics Processing Units (GPUs). This move represents the most substantial capital investment in the history of the Memphis region. The expansion is part of a broader initiative that began with xAI's initial commitment to the city last June. The Colossus supercomputer facility currently has 100,000 GPUs. Fortune 500 technology companies Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Dell (NYSE:DELL), and Supermicro Computer are also set to establish operations in Memphis, reinforcing the city's emerging status as the "Digital Delta." Brent Mayo of xAI and Ted Townsend, President and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber, presented the ambitious project to over 1,000 local business and community leaders. Mayo highlighted the rapid progress and the importance of grid stability through megapack technology, while Townsend underscored the pivotal role of Memphis in providing the necessary resources for xAI's growth and attracting other tech giants. The Greater Memphis Chamber has formed an xAI Special Operations Team to support the company's expansion. The team, led by Townsend, is dedicated to providing continuous concierge service. Troy Parkes, Senior Vice President of Global Business Development, is at the forefront of the initiative to ensure swift and efficient expansion efforts. This expansion is set to transform Memphis into a leading technology hub, fostering significant economic growth and establishing the city as a key player in the artificial intelligence industry.
[10]
Elon Musk's xAI To Expand Colossus Supercomputer Tenfold, Challenging Google, OpenAI And Jeff Bezos-Backed Anthropic - Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG), Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN)
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence (AI) startup, xAI, has revealed plans to expand its Colossus supercomputer by over tenfold. This move is aimed at closing the gap with competitors such as Alphabet Inc. GOOG GOOGL subsidiary Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic. What Happened: The Colossus supercomputer, which was constructed in just three months, is set to incorporate more than 1 million graphics processing units (GPUs), reported the Financial Times on Wednesday. The supercomputer, which is currently the largest in the world, operates a cluster of over 100,000 interconnected Nvidia GPUs. The expansion process has already commenced at the Memphis facility, with companies like Nvidia, Dell, and Supermicro Computer establishing operations in Memphis to support the expansion. The Greater Memphis Chamber also plans to create an "xAI special operations team" to provide round-the-clock service to the company. See Also: Fed Chair Powell: Bitcoin Is 'Like Gold, It's Just Virtual And Digital' Why It Matters: AI companies are currently in a race to secure GPUs and access to data centers to meet the computing power demands for training and running their large-language models. OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has a nearly $14 billion partnership with Microsoft Corp. MSFT, which includes computing power credits. Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, has received an $8 billion investment from Amazon and is set to gain access to a new cluster of over 100,000 specialized AI chips. The AI industry is witnessing fierce competition for computing power, with major players like Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, OpenAI, and Anthropic making significant moves to strengthen their positions. On Tuesday, Jeff Bezos-backed Amazon unveiled advanced AI chip clusters to boost the performance of its partner, Anthropic, challenging the dominance of current market leaders, Nvidia and OpenAI. This move by xAI to expand its supercomputer is another significant development in this ongoing battle for AI supremacy. Despite being a relatively new player in the AI industry, xAI, which is valued at $45 billion, has been rapidly gaining ground. The company, founded by Musk just over a year ago, has reportedly recently raised an additional $5 billion and is now in direct competition with OpenAI, a company Musk helped co-found in 2015. Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link. Read Next: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin Dip As Investors Get Spooked By US Government's $2B BTC Transfer: Analyst Says Photo courtesy: Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs
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Elon Musk's AI startup xAI is set to dramatically expand its Colossus supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee, aiming to reach over 1 million GPUs. This ambitious project involves partnerships with major tech companies and significant infrastructure challenges.
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup, xAI, has announced plans to dramatically expand its Colossus supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee. The company aims to scale up from its current 200,000 GPUs to an unprecedented 1 million GPUs, potentially making it one of the world's most powerful AI supercomputers 12.
Colossus, which currently operates with over 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, was assembled in just four months earlier this year. The system has already been expanded to 200,000 H100 and H200 GPUs, with a goal of reaching 300,000 by next summer 2. The timeline for achieving the 1 million GPU milestone has not been specified, but the project is already underway 3.
To facilitate this massive expansion, xAI is collaborating with tech giants Nvidia, Dell, and Supermicro Computer. These companies plan to establish operations in Memphis to support the project 24. The Greater Memphis Chamber has also announced the creation of an "xAI special operations team" to provide round-the-clock support for the company 34.
The expansion of Colossus presents significant infrastructure challenges, particularly in terms of power consumption and cooling. Experts estimate that the current 100,000 GPUs require approximately 155MW of power 1. Scaling up to 1 million GPUs could potentially demand over 1.5GW, raising concerns about strain on the local power grid and potential increases in energy prices for residents 15.
This project represents the largest capital investment in Memphis's history, with potential costs running into tens of billions of dollars for GPUs, infrastructure, and operations 35. The expansion is expected to bring substantial economic benefits to the region, including job creation and increased investment 1.
xAI's expansion plans highlight the intense competition in AI development. Unlike rivals such as OpenAI and Anthropic, which partner with major tech companies for computing power, xAI is independently building its supercomputing capacity 5. This strategy puts xAI in a race to secure advanced AI hardware, potentially giving it an edge over competitors 5.
The massive scale of the Colossus expansion could significantly advance AI capabilities. With such computational power, xAI aims to develop more sophisticated AI models, potentially surpassing current leaders in the field 24. The project also underscores the growing importance of hardware in AI development, with GPUs becoming a critical resource in the industry 5.
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Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, has introduced a powerful new supercomputer named 'Memphis' to train its next-generation AI model, Grok 3. The system boasts an impressive array of 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, positioning it as one of the most potent AI training clusters globally.
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Elon Musk's XAI has launched Colossus, a groundbreaking AI training system utilizing 100,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs. This massive computational power aims to revolutionize AI development and compete with industry giants.
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Elon Musk announces his efforts to develop the world's most powerful AI, sparking debate and skepticism in the tech community. The ambitious project aims to surpass existing AI models in various metrics.
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xAI, Elon Musk's AI company, acquires a one-million-square-foot property in Memphis to expand its AI data center footprint, signaling a significant boost to its supercomputer capabilities and intensifying competition in the AI industry.
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Elon Musk's xAI is expanding its Colossus AI supercomputer from 100,000 to 200,000 NVIDIA Hopper GPUs, making it the world's largest AI training system. The project showcases NVIDIA's Spectrum-X Ethernet networking platform, achieving unprecedented performance in AI workloads.
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