On April 2, Beijing time, Elon Maas (Elon Musk) has said that his artificial intelligence startup xA will build the world's largest supercomputer in Memphis, Tenn. Documents seen by Business Insider show that the company is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in this endeavor, but faces largerelectrical powerGap.
Since the project was first announced in June 2024, xAI has submitted 14 building permit applications to the Memphis Planning and Development Agency for a total estimated cost of $405.9 million (approximately $2.9 billion). xAI has also submitted 14 building permit applications to the Memphis Planning and Development Agency for the project.
The document also shows thatxAI can't get enough power from the local Memphis grid to run a million GPU, unless it builds its own generating facilities at the project site.MuskIt was previously stated that the Memphis supercomputer Colossus was to be enlarged tenfold to accommodate one million GPUs.
The permit applications cover electrical, mechanical, plumbing and other types of work, including a $30 million installation of computer equipment and a $3.9 million fence to protect against automobile collisions.
Large power shortfalls
To date, xAI has applied for 300 megawatts (MW) of grid power from Memphis Lighting, Gas and Water (MLGW) and has received a permit to supply 150 MW. xAI has also received a permit from Memphis Lighting, Gas and Water (MLGW) to supply 300 MW of grid power.
xAI has applied to install natural gas turbines at the supercomputer project site to generate electricity. The company said that full utilization of the 300 MW of grid power would depend on "major infrastructure upgrades" and improvements to the transmission network in the region. In the meantime, xAI has been supplementing its power supply with gas-fired generators from Caterpillar subsidiary Solar Turbines, which have a combined capacity of 250 MW.
"We cannot meet customer demand without additional on-site generation," xAI said in its permit application. The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), which is responsible for supplying power to most of Tennessee and parts of six neighboring states, said in February that it plans to invest $16 billion over the next few years to meet historic load growth in its jurisdiction. This growth is being driven primarily by xAI, other data centers, and the expansion of battery manufacturers in the region.
A spokesman for the Tennessee Valley Authority said in a statement that its board of directors "needs to review and approve any new load in excess of 100 megawatts to ensure that the reliability of the electric system is maintained."
With its autonomous on-site power generation capability, says Shaolei Ren, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of California, Riverside.xAI will likely be able to power 200,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, but further scaling of arithmetic will be challenging.
"While it is still possible to expand arithmetic, this means that an aggressive overbooking strategy will be required." Ren Shaolei said. Overbooking is a common practice in data centers. Data centers will offer customers a larger contracted amount of power than they actually have available, the reason being that not all customers will use all of their booked power at the same time.
According to Ren Shaolei's calculations, running 1 million GPUs could require more than 1 gigawatt of power, four times the power currently available to xAI in Memphis.
