Elon Musk isn’t wasting any time building out his massive AI-computing facilities in Tennessee.
Musk said on X that he’s expanding Colossus 2 with two additional sites, dubbed Spam and Gun Range. He said the Spam location used to house Hormel-brand products, Spam perhaps among them, and that the Gun Range location was once owned by the local police department.
“I walked the whole Colossus 2 site around midnight and again this morning. Good progress by the SpaceX team and contractors,” Musk said on X. “Gun Range is tracking to be operational by end of November and Spam in December.”
Developing and running AI systems requires enormous amounts of compute power, which led Musk to build a supercomputer called Colossus in Memphis in 2024. xAI, acquired by SpaceX, later expanded the project with Colossus 2 to generate more power for its AI chatbot, Grok. Construction for that campus began last year in Memphis.
Supercomputers and data centers are necessary to power AI systems, though they’ve often drawn ire from communities where the hulking facilities are built. Colossus and Colossus 2 are no different. Residents near Memphis have packed public hearings, staged protests, and created petitions opposing the campuses.
In April, the NAACP filed a lawsuit against xAI and its subsidiary, MZX Tech, saying they were unlawfully operating unpermitted methane gas turbines to power Colossus 2. The complaint said xAI was operating the unpermitted gas turbines in Southaven, Mississippi, which is less than 20 minutes away. Last week, a US District Judge denied xAI and MZX Tech’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
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