Elon Musk's XAI Buys New Property In Memphis For Supercomputer Expansion

Supercomputer Colossus to accommodate at least one million units of graphics processing units (GPU) (photo: x @NVIDIADC)

JAKARTA - Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, has purchased a 1 million-square-foot property in Southwest Memphis, Tennessee. This was done, as part of their AI infrastructure expansion. This information was confirmed by Greater Memphis Chamber on Friday 7 March.

The new investment strengthens the xAI plan announced in December 2024, in which the company plans to expand its Colossus supercomputer to accommodate at least one million units of graphics processing units (GPU) in the state.

Colossus' supercomputer is considered a key element in AI Musk's ambition, especially in competition with OpenAI. Musk has recently clashed with OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in his bid to take control of the ChatGPT development company.

According to Greater Memphis Chamber, the Colossus supercomputer is currently on track to achieve the size of the supercluster, as announced by xAI in December.

However, the expansion of AI infrastructure has also drawn criticism from environmental activists, because the data centers built consume large amounts of energy.

As part of the sustainability measure, the new facility xAI in Memphis will be backed by an 80 million US dollars (IDR 1.3 trillion) water recycling plant and will feature the world's largest use of Tesla Megapacks for data center operations.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday 5 March, it was reported that Tesla also plans to build a 1 million-square-foot factory in Texas to manage and store its Megapack energy products.