Elon Musk’s xAI is partnering with Microsoft and others on a $30 billion infrastructure project. Elon Musk somehow manages to win again. Microsoft, along with BlackRock and UAE-based MGX, have announced they are partnering with his artificial intelligence startup xAI on a $30 billion project to develop data centers and other infrastructure.
Microsoft, being the largest backer of OpenAI, is essentially teaming up with one of its rivals. That relationship has increasingly cooled as Microsoft loosens its reliance on the startup and develops its own in-house AI models including MAI. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is no fan of Musk, recently describing him as insecure in an interview , and must be screaming inside. Altman probably is not wrong about Musk’s insecurity, but insecurity is a powerful motivator.
Gizmodo has reached out to xAI for comment. Musk’s companies do not often respond to media inquiries.
The details of the new deal with xAI are unclear, like how much money Musk’s startup will commit to the data center venture. xAI has raised $12 billion since its founding in 2023, nearly the same amount as OpenAI, and is reportedly looking to raise another $10 billion . Its data center in Memphis, dubbed Colossus, is said to be the largest in the world with more than one million GPUs powering the Grok chatbot that is deeply integrated into X.
xAI has received criticism for using gas turbines to feed its significant power demands, and receiving significant concessions from the city of Memphis even though data centers usually do not employ many people , and AI threatens to eliminate jobs. Most companies in the space hope to build out nuclear energy to power their demands, which could be a positive for the green energy transition, but building out nuclear takes many years . In the meantime, President Trump has advocated for building out coal power plants next to data centers.
Every company in the artificial intelligence space is racing to build out computing infrastructure they believe will be necessary to stand out in an incredibly competitive field. Forming partnerships could help spread the costs of these expansive projects, and […]
Elon Musk Is Joining Microsoft in $30 Billion Data Center Project
