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Elon Musk is reportedly planning to build the world’s most powerful artificial intelligence supercomputer to power his controversial AI chatbot, Grok.
The heads of Tesla and X (formerly Twitter) plan to purchase 100,000 Nvidia semiconductor chips for the venture, which they plan to launch by next year, The Information reported.
The plans were revealed this month during an investor presentation for xAI, an AI startup founded by Musk, with Musk reportedly claiming he wants to build a “computer gigafactory.”
The proposed machine will use Nvidia’s flagship H100 graphics processing unit (GPU) and will be at least four times larger than the largest GPU clusters currently in existence.
Reports of the multibillion-dollar effort come at the same time as the startup announced a multibillion-dollar funding round for xAI on Sunday.
In a blog post detailing its $6 billion Series B funding round, xAI noted its Grok model, saying its primary focus is on developing advanced AI systems that are “honest, competent, and in the greatest interest of all humanity.”
“xAI will continue on this trajectory of rapid progress over the coming months with multiple exciting technology updates and products to announce soon,” the blog read.
“The funds raised in this round will be used to bring xAI’s first product to market, build out advanced infrastructure, and accelerate research and development of future technologies.”
xAI released Grok in November 2023 as an “anti-woke” replacement for ChatGPT, a popular AI chatbot built by OpenAI and Google’s Bard.
At the launch, Musk said X users would be able to ask “provocative questions that most other AI systems would reject,” such as how to make Class A drugs like cocaine.
“Grok is designed to answer questions with a dash of wit and a rebellious streak,” reads the blog post announcing its release. “If you don’t like humor, don’t use it!”
“Our mission is to understand the true nature of the universe,” xAI concludes in its latest blog post announcing the new funding.