The xAI Colossus project led by Elon Musk faces an electricity crisis that prevents its planned 1 million GPU deployment. The Memphis-based supercomputer facility received $400 million in investment after asking Memphis Light, Gas, and Water for 300 megawatts but they approved only 150 megawatts.
The power shortage has been addressed by xAI through the installation of Caterpillar’s Solar Turbines gas generators which deliver 250 MW of power. The Colossus project requires more than 1 gigawatt of electricity to operate its planned 1 million Nvidia H100 and H200 GPUs. The facility has managed to install 200,000 GPUs during its first 122 days of operation.
The hardware expenses for this operation reach an astronomical level because each H100 chip costs between $27,000 and $40,000 while each H200 chip costs $32,000. Operating one million GPUs would generate hardware expenses exceeding $27 billion before adding power costs to the total. The company xAI continues its dedication to developing AI computing power while building up against OpenAI’s Texas-based Stargate facility.
