A former Electrolux facility in Memphis is set to house a giant supercomputer built by xAI, Musk’s artificial intelligence company.
Photographer: Houston Cofield/BloombergIn Memphis, an AI Supercomputer From Elon Musk Stirs Hope and Concern
The billionaire’s artificial intelligence company is moving quickly to build one of the world’s largest computers in South Memphis. But many locals are wary of its benefits.
The big promise of the next era of supercomputing is speed: To perform the feats of number-crunching needed to run artificial intelligence programs, the coming generation of data processors will tap the properties of quantum physics to deliver a leap in problem-solving power.
In the case of the “gigafactory of compute” that billionaire Elon Musk seeks to build on an industrial site in Memphis, this buzzy new brand of thinking machine also comes with an incredibly accelerated development timeline, with the target of full operations by the end of 2025. That has residents, city council members and environmental advocates puzzled over the project’s potential effects, and frustrated at the rapid pace and dearth of public feedback.