Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence firm xAI has acquired a 1-million-square-foot property in Southwest Memphis, Tennessee, marking a significant step in its efforts to expand AI infrastructure.
The new facility supports the company’s plans to grow its Colossus supercomputer, which is set to house at least one million graphics processing units (GPUs), following an earlier announcement in December.
The Colossus supercomputer is central to Musk’s strategy of gaining a competitive edge in the AI industry, especially in light of tensions with OpenAI and its CEO, Sam Altman. The Greater Memphis Chamber noted that Colossus is progressing toward the “supercluster size” outlined in xAI’s December announcement.
The expansion has sparked concerns from environmental groups due to the high energy consumption of data centers. However, the Memphis Chamber highlighted that xAI’s new facility includes an $80 million water recycling plant and features the world’s largest deployment of Tesla Megapacks for data center operations.
Additionally, Tesla plans to build a similar 1-million-square-foot factory in Texas for the storage and management of its Megapack energy products, as reported earlier this week.
