Elon Musk says training begins for xAI supercomputer project in Memphis

It looks like xAI has begun training, at least in some capacity.

Around 5 a.m. Monday, xAI founder Elon Musk posted on the social media app X (formerly known as Twitter and also owned by Musk) regarding the xAI supercomputer in Memphis.

In the post, Musk thanks xAI, X and Nvidia as supporting companies for training that began at 4:20 a.m. Monday.

The 100,000 H100s mentioned in the post refer to the Nvidia H100 graphic processing units (GPUs) that are being used to power the supercomputer. The chips are considered the fastest GPUs currently on the market. In June, University of Memphis professor and artificial intelligence researcher Santosh Kumar referenced the power usage of one H100 chip is equivalent to adding a single household to the power grid .

The training announcement comes shortly after xAI posted it was hiring for Memphis positions . On July 2, the company posted on X regarding open positions with the company. Those roles included 27 in total, nine in Memphis. The number of total xAI jobs in Memphis still has not been disclosed.

The facility is located at 3231 Paul R. Lowery Road, the former Electrolux site . Construction has been ongoing at the 785,000-square-foot building since the Greater Memphis Chamber announced the xAI deal on June 5. The deal has been heralded as one of the largest investments in the region's history.

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On July 16, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) said it does not currently have a contract with xAI . TVA requires approval for any site using more than 100 megawatts. According to Memphis Light, Gas and Water, the xAI site is expected to produce more than 150 megawatts and over 1.3 million gallons of water daily for cooling purposes .

xAI launched its artificial intelligence hardware, Grok-O, in August 2023. The chatbot is a rival program to OpenAI's ChatGPT, which launched in November 2022.

Neil Strebig is a journalist with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at neil.strebig@commercialappeal.com , 901-426-0679 or via X/Twitter, @neilStrebig .

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Elon Musk says training begins for xAI supercomputer project in Memphis