ELON, WHAT A GENIUS!
Is anyone else out there getting this? Elon just made chess moves that make all other AI factory builder wannabes look like 1st graders.
Yes, around December of 2023, Elon acquired use of the Electrolux facility in Memphis and began modifications to support development of Colossus 1. In insanely record time, Elon had Colossus 1 operational 9 months later, by September 2024. The Colosus 1 supercomputer was installed and operational in 19 days! As Jenson Wang of Nvidia declared, the whole development should have taken over 4 years. Colossus 1 is now running with about 230,000 GPUs. Primarily H-100s but about 30,000 GB200s.
In mid-February, XAI broke ground 12 miles away in the Whitehaven area of Memphis to begin construction of a 1 million sq ft facility for Colossus 2 in which will have over 550,000 (up to 1 million) GPUs, primarily GB200s and GB300s. Colossus 2 is slated to begin initial operation in just a few weeks!
So, what about the 2 GW of electric power needed to feed 1 million GPUs making up these power-hungry XAI Supercomputers and facilities?
Well Elon just happened to find an inactive natural gas power plant located a little over a mile south of Colossus 2 across the state line in Southaven, Mississippi. The deactivated power plant is in bad shape and would take a lot of time and money to refurbish the plant. So, to speed things up, Elon found and purchased natural gas power plant equipment (including gas turbines) from an undisclosed location overseas. Think about it, this power plant site is already permitted/zoned for a power plant and already hooked up to the local grid. For everyone else, right now, it can take 5 to 7 years to design, permit, and build a natural gas power plant -- primarily due to equipment shortages. The lead time for gas turbines alone is up to 48 months.
Let’s watch and see how long Elon and XAI take to get the power plant operational.
Don’t you just love to watch a verifiable genius at work?
(How is Stargate coming along?)