Musk wagers $18 billion on a supercomputer in Memphis

According to the Wall Street Journal, Elon Musk's xAI is investing $18 billion to purchase hundreds of thousands of Nvidia GPUs for its Colossus 2 data center in Memphis. This is the most recent attempt to outperform competitors as local opposition mounts. The specifics: According to reports, xAI will buy 300K more GPUs from Nvidia, increasing the total number of chips in Colossus 2 to about 550K for a minimum of $18 billion. xAI is investing $80 million in wastewater treatment facilities to recycle millions of gallons of water every day in order to meet the facility's enormous cooling needs. Locally, xAI has grown to be Memphis's second-biggest tax payer behind FedEx, guaranteeing hundreds of employment and bolstering the city's reputation as a high-tech center. In July, xAI declared that it has started building Colossus 2's computing infrastructure, with completion anticipated by 2026. Memphis's hunger for more than a gigawatt of power and millions of gallons of water per day has caused opposition due to Musk's AI push. Residents and environmental organizations, particularly in historically neglected Black neighborhoods, have voiced concerns about pollution and grid pressure.