Elon MuskArtificial intelligence (AI) startup xAI has revealed plans to expand its Colossus supercomputer tenfold. This approach aims to reduce the gap with competitors such as Alphabet Inc. GOOG GOOGLE subsidiary Google, OpenAIAnd Anthropic.
What happened: The Colossus supercomputer, built in just three months, is expected to integrate more than a million graphics processing units (GPUs), reported the Financial Times on Wednesday. The supercomputer, which is currently the largest in the world, operates a cluster of more than 100,000 interconnected Nvidia GPUs.
The expansion process has already begun at the Memphis facilities, with companies like Nvidia, Dell and Supermicro Computer establishing operations in Memphis to support the expansion. The Greater Memphis Chamber also plans to create an “xAI Special Operations Team” to provide 24-hour service to the company.
See also: Fed Chairman Powell: Bitcoin is “like gold, it’s just virtual and digital”
Why it matters: AI companies are currently in a race to secure GPUs and data center access to meet the demands for computing power for training and running their big language models.
OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has a nearly $14 billion partnership with Microsoft Corp. MSFTwhich includes computing power credits. Anthropic, the maker of the Claude chatbot, has received an $8 billion investment from Amazon and is expected to gain access to a new cluster of more than 100,000 specialized AI chips.
The AI industry faces fierce competition for computing power, with major players like Amazon.com Inc. AMZNOpenAI and Anthropic are taking significant steps to strengthen their positions.
Tuesday, Jeff Bezos-Amazon-backed Amazon has unveiled advanced AI chip clusters to improve the performance of its partner, Anthropic, challenging the dominance of current market leaders Nvidia and OpenAI. This move by xAI to expand its supercomputer is another important development in this ongoing battle for AI supremacy.
Although a relatively new player in the AI industry, xAI, valued at $45 billion, is quickly gaining traction. The company, founded by Musk just over a year ago, reportedly recently raised an additional $5 billion and is now in direct competition with OpenAI, a company Musk helped co-found in 2015.
See more of Benzinga’s Consumer Tech coverage in by following this link.
Read next:
Photo courtesy: Shutterstock
News and market data powered by Benzinga APIs
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.