Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, is making ambitious plans to construct a supercomputer designed to power the next version of its AI chatbot, Grok. This development was revealed during a recent investor presentation, as reported on Saturday.
According to Musk, the goal is to have this advanced supercomputer operational by the fall of 2025. To achieve this, xAI is considering a partnership with Oracle, leveraging its expertise and resources to build one of the most powerful computing systems in existence.
The centrepiece of this supercomputer will be Nvidia’s flagship H100 graphics processing units (GPUs), which are currently the gold standard in the data centre chip market for AI applications. Musk highlighted that the planned supercomputer would be at least four times the size of the largest existing GPU clusters, an ambitious scale that underscores the project’s significance and complexity.
Nvidia’s H100 GPUs are renowned for their processing power, but their high demand makes them challenging to procure. Musk’s emphasis on using these cutting-edge GPUs reflects xAI’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of AI technology.
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI before founding xAI last year, aims to position xAI as a formidable competitor to AI giants like Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Alphabet’s Google. This move marks his return to the forefront of AI innovation, promising significant advancements in the field.
Earlier in the year, Musk disclosed that training the current Grok 2 model required about 20,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs. For the forthcoming Grok 3 model and subsequent iterations, Musk estimates the need will escalate to around 100,000 Nvidia H100 chips, highlighting the exponential growth in computational requirements for advanced AI models.
Despite the enormity of this undertaking, neither xAI nor Oracle have provided further comments. Musk’s return to AI through xAI and this supercomputer project marks a significant development in the quest for more powerful and efficient AI systems. The world will be watching closely as xAI advances towards its ambitious goals.
