Elon Musk’s xAI startup is set to build a supercomputer in Memphis, Tennessee, potentially the world’s largest. The Greater Memphis Chamber announced that xAI selected Memphis for its “Gigafactory of Compute,” located in a 785,000-square-foot former Electrolux facility. Chamber CEO Ted Townsend remarked that the supercomputer would surpass the combined capacity of the world’s two largest supercomputers, multiplied by four.
Details on the specs remain undisclosed. However, local reports suggest the supercomputer will feature 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, aimed at advancing xAI’s chatbot, Grok. The goal is to have the facility operational by fall 2025.
Despite the ambitious plans, competition is fierce. Companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, Meta, and Google are also heavily investing in GPU-based supercomputing centers. Meta, for instance, aims to acquire 350,000 Nvidia H100s by the year’s end.
Approval from local authorities is pending, but the project promises economic benefits, including job creation and investment inflow. xAI recently secured an additional $6 billion in funding, highlighting the escalating race among tech giants to lead in AI development.
