Musk buys new building for xAI to expand AI compute power: Location remains undisclosed

Tech bellwether Elon Musk has revealed that xAI, his artificial intelligence (AI) startup, has acquired a third building to expand its infrastructure and boost its training capacity to nearly 2 gigawatts of compute power.

This augmentation comes on the heels of xAI's ambitious competition with industry leaders like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Anthropic's Claude, developing extensively advanced AI models.

What is MACROHARDRR, Musk's newly bought building for xAI's compute power boost?

Musk's new building for xAi is referred to as MACROHARDRR, which will serve as a supersized data centre, with plans to expand the existing supercomputer cluster in Memphis, Tennessee, known as Colossus, which is boasted as the largest in the world.

Musk has not disclosed the exact location of the new facility but indicated that it is planned for an area outside Memphis.

xAI's intentions for this third new site are to transform the newly acquired warehouse into a data centre by 2026, housing at least 1 million graphics processing units (GPUs), Reuters reported.

This expansion is reportedly situated near a natural gas power plant established by xAI, along with other energy sources to support its operations.

While the growth of AI infrastructure is crucial for xAI to gain a competitive edge against rivals, it has drawn the ire of environmental activists concerned about the gigantic amount of energy consumption associated with data centres.

With xAI expanding, balancing technological advancement with environmental sustainability appears to be a persisting hurdle in the wake of loudly echoing concerns about global warming.