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Benzinga
Benzinga
Badar Shaikh

Tesla's 208 Megapacks Power xAI's Colossus 1 Supercomputer—Musk's AI Giant To Invest Over $40 Billion To Train Grok

Grok,Logo,Displayed,On,A,Smartphone,With,Xai,And,Elon

Over 208 Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) Megapacks Power Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI's Memphis Colossus 1 Supercomputer site, which supports the company’s artificial intelligence model Grok amid a $40 billion investment.

$40 Billion Investment, Solar Power On The Way

xAI's total investment in the supercomputer site in Memphis is believed to be around $30-$40 billion, Action News 5 reported on Tuesday. The report also says that the company is planning to break ground on a 500-acre solar farm in September.

Currently, the supercomputer site is powered by over 208 Tesla Megapacks, each with a storage capacity of 3.9 MWh of electricity, though xAI is looking at permanent power solutions.

"We're looking at options and how fast we could transition to permanent power," Brent Mayo, xAI General Manager, said. He added that the company is also looking at building another substation, on top of the one already built, with oversight from the local authorities, to power the site.

The company is also constructing a cooling tower, which will supply cooled, reprocessed sewage water to the supercomputer site to maintain operating temperatures for the site.

Environmental Groups Raise Questions, Sustainable Water Cooling

The news comes as the NAACP, or the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, had slammed Musk's company over the gas-powered turbines at the data center, which the group said disproportionately impacted the majority-black community in Memphis.

The company then revealed its plans to "sustainably" cool the data center via the "world's largest ceramic membrane bioreactor," which would supply over 13 million gallons of water per day to Colossus 1.

Elon Musk Alleges Apple's Favoritism Of ChatGPT Over Grok, Tesla Scraps Dojo

The news also comes amid recent allegations of favoritism leveled against Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) by Musk, who says that the Cupertino-based company favors OpenAI's ChatGPT over xAI's Grok in the App Store.

Elsewhere, Tesla has pulled the plug on its Dojo program, which was responsible for developing in-house AI capabilities, including self-driving chips, as Musk's company signed a $16.5 billion deal with Samsung Electronics (OTC:SSNLF) to develop AI6 autonomous driving chips.

Tesla scores well on Momentum and Growth metrics, while offering satisfactory Quality, but poor Value. For more such insights, sign up for Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings today!

Check out more of Benzinga's Future Of Mobility coverage by following this link.

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Photo courtesy: Shutterstock

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