It has been the talk of AI-driven enterprise for the last month and each new story surrounding it has raised more eyebrows. When it comes to technology news, rarely does the name Elon Musk dodge the headlines.
Whether viewed positively or negatively, it is a fact that Elon Musk has a new love in his life – a supercomputer as the next elevation of his quest to be at the forefront of the AI navigator for enterprise. The man behind Tesla, SpaceX, and the platform formally known as Twitter, X, looks to build upon the controversy already established from his AI chatbot Grok, pulling in the astronomical requirement of 100,000 Nvidia superconductor chips to meet his self-established deadline of xAI going live in 2025.
Dubbed ‘The Gigafactory of Compute’, Musk’s new project is four times bigger than the current CPU clusters used in AI-driven enterprise – and he found billions in backing for his new dream.
The Rise of Grok
No, it is not some schlocky Sci-Fi title, Grok would be Musk’s alternative to the rapid rise of ChatGPT, yet one that got headlines for all the wrong reasons.
Launched as the ‘Anti-woke’ AI enterprise software alternative, Grok was a public relations nightmare in reality, allowing its users to enquire about subjects that other AI would reject or censor completely. Want to know how to make cocaine at home? Grok will provide you with the ingredients. While Musk would promote the AI chatbot as something for those who like humour, people would find humour at his expense, as the chatbot would be the subject of such considerable controversy, as you would expect.
However, Grok would find relevance in the multi-billion dollar funding round that Musk pulled in for xAI, promoting the development of advanced enterprise generative AI that would be steeped in truth, competence, and an overall maximum benefit to humanity.
XAI Finds Its Graceland
To the surprise of many, Musk has swung toward Memphis, Tennessee to be the home for his supercomputer, making the largest new-to-market company in Memphis’ history. The project will have a significant jump on the city’s economy and make it a power player in the technological stance of AI development.
Despite 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs and billions of dollars in investment, details remain sketchy on any technological specifics for his AI-driven enterprise – and what performance benchmarks will be set with the project. At the time being, no one even knows any construction timeframes for the grand project or whereabouts in the Memphis territory where it will be established.
One clear thing is that Memphis is a smart move for Musk, one that includes the involvement of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and its rich and powerful energy resources.
Of course, this move has also had a lot of concern from environmentalist factions around the Memphis territory, concerned about the levels of water required for the coolant of such a supercomputer. Requiring one million gallons of water a day to keep running temperatures low and an electricity supply that powers up to 100,000 homes, the call has been made for xAI to run with alternative energy sources and a signed environmental pledge from Elon Musk himself to ensure the project remains environmentally responsible.
The Outlook for Musk
How will Musk’s new love affair pan out in the realm of enterprise generative AI? It is destined to be the main talking point of many big data events UK for the next few months. It will also be at big data events where Musk will see his biggest voices to overcome, with many people pointing to the fact that Musk relocated chips destined for Tesla into his new project while his EV company was suffering faults with their product, decreasing sales, and employee termination.
How will Musk’s new venture be greeted at the next big data event London? Only time and progress will tell.
