Elon Musk-led AI startup xAI plans to develop “one of the world’s most advanced supercomputers” in Memphis, Tennessee, Bloomberg reports, citing the Greater Memphis Chamber’s press conference on Wednesday.
xAI to build “Gigafactory of Compute” in Memphis
According to the report, xAI aims to build a new building in Memphis to house its planned multi-billion-dollar supercomputer, “Gigafactory of Compute.”
It is part of the startup’s efforts to advance in the AI race, particularly in smart chatbots and other tools.
xAI plans to erect its giant supercomputer project at the 785,000-square-foot former Electrolux Memphis building located at 3231 Paul R. Lowry Road in Southwest Memphis.
It is expected to become the largest capital investment by a startup in Memphis to date.
US Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) commended the project and founder, Elon Musk in a post on the social media platform X.
“I’m pleased to welcome xAI to Tennessee and congratulate @elonmusk on this exciting new initiative. This investment corroborates our state’s position as a leader in technological advances and discoveries and will expand our Artificial Intelligence capabilities to solve complex science and security problems. With this project, Tennessee will remain at the forefront of AI at a critical time for this rapidly evolving field of research.”
US Senator Bill Hagerty
Multi-billion dollar investment promises scientific breakthroughs and jobs
According to the report, Elon Musk and the xAI team have negotiated with Tennessee government officials since early March about the proposed facility.
Local nonprofit organization Greater Memphis Chamber President Ted Townsend boasted that the Gigafactory of Compute project would be the “largest multibillion-dollar investment in the city of Memphis’s history.”
xAI has yet to reveal more details about the project, such as the overall cost and number of jobs, among others.
The city government has also talked about granting xAI tax breaks or other incentives to win the project. However, those specifics are still pending.
“We have work to do, make no mistake. But we’re really incredibly grateful for the interest from Elon and his executives and the xAI team.”
Greater Memphis Chamber President Ted Townsend
Memphis Mayor Paul Young also expressed his excitement for xAI’s supercomputer project, which promises to deliver AI-related breakthroughs and jobs for the locals.
“Memphis is a city of innovators, so it’s no surprise that it feels like home to those looking to change the world. We get things done here. We have great partners at the Greater Memphis Chamber and MLGW who were ready to make this happen. We had an ideal site, ripe for investment. And we had the power of our people who created new and innovative processes to keep up with the pace required to land this transformational project.”
Memphis Mayor Paul Young
xAI seeks to challenge market leaders such as OpenAI
American business tycoon Elon Musk has focused significantly on xAI over the past year as he seeks to position the startup against current market leaders, including OpenAI, Alphabet Inc.’s Google, and Meta Platforms Inc.
Its primary product is Grok, an AI chatbot feature in Musk’s social media platform X (former Twitter). According to the product description, the AI chatbot was “designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and a rebellious streak.”
To fund these initiatives, xAI recently declared $6 billion in new venture capital funding, which boosted the company’s valuation to over $24 billion, including the new investment capital.
In a May investor meeting, Musk revealed plans to build a “Gigafactory of Compute.” He reportedly aims to finish this project by the fall of 2025.
The planned supercomputer would apparently consist of 100,000 of Nvidia’s H100 graphics processing units (GPU) to train the latest version of Grok.
