Inside Elon Musk’s Mad Dash To Build A Giant xAI Supercomputer In Memphis
Forbes Daily Briefing
Forbes
4.4 • 18 Ratings
🗓️ 19 July 2024
⏱️ 5 minutes
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Summary
Elon Musk is “hauling ass” on his “Gigafactory of Compute” project in Memphis. But a whiplash deal, NDAs, and backroom promises made to the city have lawmakers demanding answers.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Here is your Forbes Daily Briefing for Friday, July 19th. |
| 0:05.0 | Today on Forbes, inside Elon Musk's Mad Dash to build a giant X-A-I supercomputer in Memphis. As Ted Townsend tells it, |
| 0:15.0 | Eun Musk took roughly a week to decide to build the new supercomputer for his AI startup |
| 0:20.5 | X-AI in Memphis. |
| 0:23.1 | After a whirlwind few days of negotiations in March, |
| 0:26.2 | Musk and his team, which included representatives |
| 0:28.8 | from several of his companies, opted for the Tennessee City |
| 0:32.2 | because it offered ample access to power and the ability |
| 0:35.0 | to build quickly. This according to Townsend, who's the president of the Greater |
| 0:39.1 | Memphis Chamber, an economic growth nonprofit that worked on the deal. |
| 0:43.0 | X-A-I's contractors refer to the project as Project Colossus, |
| 0:48.0 | and Townsend recalls Musk saying of the project, |
| 0:50.0 | quote, |
| 0:51.0 | We're going to haul ass in Memphis. The project shares its name with the 1970 film Colossus, the Forbin Project, about an out-of-control |
| 1:00.2 | AI that was given control of the United States nuclear arsenal. |
| 1:04.0 | In the official trailer for the film, the narrator says, |
| 1:07.0 | Colossus, Seize all, senses all, knows all, |
| 1:11.0 | controls all armaments and defenses. |
| 1:13.4 | When this emotionless creation becomes the master of man, |
| 1:16.6 | the result is catastrophic. |
| 1:18.6 | The multi-billion dollar investment, |
| 1:21.4 | according to Townsend's estimate, was officially announced last month. |
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