Elon Musk, xAI and a big supercomputer in Memphis: A look at plans for the massive project

Neil Strebig, Memphis Commercial Appeal
Updated ·3 min read

Elon Musk is heading to Memphis — at least one of his companies plans to.

On Wednesday, the Greater Memphis Chamber announced Musk's xAI has selected Memphis for its "Gigafactory of Compute" site, which will play host city to the "world's largest supercomputer." Musk was not on hand for the announcement.

Here's what to know about the xAI project planned in Memphis.

Where will xAI Memphis site be located?

An employee operates a robotic arm that will move products from a track that exits the environmental enamel room and places them into large ovens during a tour of the new 750,000-sqaure-foot Electrolux manufacturing plant in Memphis on Jan. 15, 2013.
An employee operates a robotic arm that will move products from a track that exits the environmental enamel room and places them into large ovens during a tour of the new 750,000-sqaure-foot Electrolux manufacturing plant in Memphis on Jan. 15, 2013.

During Wednesday's news conference, Memphis Chamber President and CEO Ted Townsend did not disclose the site's location, citing "global security concerns."

However, the former Electrolux facility at 3231 Paul Lowry Road is the presumed location for xAI. Milwaukee-based real estate company Phoenix Investors was among the entities thanked during the announcement.

In January 2019, Electrolux Group announced it would be closing the plant. The Paul Lowry Road facility (just south of President's Island) closed in 2022. In December 2023, Phoenix Investors purchased the 785,000-square-foot facility for $35 million.

INSIDE LOOK: How the Greater Memphis Chamber landed the Elon Musk, xAI project

The Electrolux site is also in close proximity to a 42-arce industrial property that was state-certified by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD) in January. The state certification is part of the TNECD's Select Tennessee initiative. The program launched in 2012 and is used to improve property and accessible lands for capital and corporate investment.

The site is also a little more than 1.5 miles from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Allen Fossil Plant. In February 2023, the Economic Development Growth Engine for Memphis and Shelby County (EDGE) released a report highlighting a redeveloped Allen Fossil Plant site would generate $1.17 billion annually. TVA closed the plant in 2018 and began demolition on the site in February 2023. The demolition of the Allen Fossil Plant is expected to be complete by 2025; coal ash removal and site remediation will continue through 2030.

How many jobs will xAI bring to Memphis?

Ted Townsend, president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber, takes a question from the press after he announced that xAI’s Gigafactory of Compute, the world’s largest supercomputer, would be located in Memphis at a press conference in Downtown Memphis, on Wednesday, June 5, 2024.
Ted Townsend, president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber, takes a question from the press after he announced that xAI’s Gigafactory of Compute, the world’s largest supercomputer, would be located in Memphis at a press conference in Downtown Memphis, on Wednesday, June 5, 2024.

The number of jobs and the total capital investment xAI's supercomputer will bring are still to be determined. However, Townsend said the development is a multibillion dollar investment.

The xAI facility is also the largest new-to-market company investment in the city's history, Townsend said.

During Wednesday's news conference no additional information was provided regarding ancillary impact either. It is presumed the xAI project will be seen as an economic development catalyst on par with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and FedEx for the city and region.

When will the Memphis xAI project be completed?

On Wednesday, Townsend said the project is expected to open later this year.

The caveat is this project still requires the approval of the EDGE board, TVA and other governing authorities.

What is a supercomputer?

In the simplest terms, it is a series of specialized computer systems designed to handle the demands of high processing speeds of information and data from a computer. With an AI supercomputer such as the proposed xAI one, that processing output would be geared toward the demands of artificial intelligence.

Interestingly, the fastest supercomputer in the world is housed in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Frontier at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is still the world's fastest as of June 2024. The 296-ton machine was built by Hewlett Packard Enterprise and chip manufacturer AMD and cost $600 million to make.

With the xAI announcement, Tennessee may be poised to have two of the largest supercomputers in the world.

Nobel laureate Eric Betzig poses in front of Frontier, the world’s fastest supercomputer, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Nobel laureate Eric Betzig poses in front of Frontier, the world’s fastest supercomputer, at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Does Elon Musk own xAI?

Yes. Musk helped launch xAI in July 2023. Musk also is the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX. The billionaire entrepreneur also successfully purchased X, then known as Twitter, in 2022.

Want to know more about xAI? What is Elon Musk's xAI? What to know about the new company with plans to build a Memphis supercomputer

On Wednesday, CNBC reported that Musk asked artificial intelligence chip manufacture Nvidia to prioritize shipments for X and xAI over Tesla.

Neil Strebig is a journalist with The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached at [email protected], 901-426-0679 or via X/Twitter, @neilStrebig. 

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Elon Musk's xAI supercomputer: What to know about plans in Memphis, TN

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