Elon Musk is wasting no time building his massive AI computing facilities in Tennessee.
Musk said on X that he was expanding Colossus 2 with two additional sites, dubbed Spam and Gun Range. He said the spam location housed Hormel brand products, with Spam possibly being among them., and that the Gun Range location was once owned by the local police department.
“I walked the entire Colossus 2 site around midnight and again this morning. Good progress from the SpaceX team and contractors,” Musk said on X. “Gun Range should be up and running by the end of November and Spam in December.”
Developing and running AI systems requires enormous amounts of computing power, leading 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 of this campus began last year in Memphis.
Supercomputers and data centers are necessary to power AI systems, although they often draw the ire of the communities where these towering facilities are built. Colossus and Colossus 2 are no different. Residents near Memphis packed public hearings, organized protests and created petitions against the campuses.
In April, the NAACP filed a lawsuit against xAI and its subsidiary, MZX Tech, claiming they were illegally operating unpermitted methane gas turbines to power Colossus 2. The complaint said xAI was operating unpermitted gas turbines in Southaven, Mississippi, less than 20 minutes away. Last week, a U.S. district judge denied xAI and MZX Tech’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
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