Elon Musk’s xAI is putting roots down in Mississippi, recently purchasing a former power plant site in Southaven for pennies on the dollar.
According to DeSoto County land records, MZX Tech LLC, which operates under the umbrella of xAI, purchased the 114-acre parcel on Stanton Road from “Julie M. James” for $10 “cash in hand.” It’s unclear if any assumption of debt was part of the deal.
The site formerly housed a Duke Energy power station and was bought by Kgen Partners for $475 million in 2004, per Data Center Dynamics.
While no power operations currently exist on the property, some infrastructure elements exist that are expected to be utilized by xAI to power the company’s behemoth one million square foot data center just across state lines in Memphis.
“xAI’s acquisition of this property ensures we’ll remain at the forefront of AI innovation, right here in Memphis,” xAI’s Memphis general manager Brent Mayo told Action 5 News, noting the company’s exact plans for the location are not public.
“We’re committed to expanding alongside this community and doing what’s best for the city. As we transform this property and enhance our facility, we’ll bring more employment opportunities and economic growth to the area.”
Musk’s rapidly expanding artificial intelligence outfit is set to bring 110,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) online in Memphis. GPUs are specialized electronic circuits used to train and run AI models.
The latest round of additions will swell xAI’s GPU total to 340,000, making it the largest supercomputer in the world.
An exorbitant amount of power is required to run such an operation, which the Southaven site is expected to help run. xAI has unveiled further ambitions to expand the company’s supercomputer “Colossus” to one million GPUs.
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy estimates that such a GPU giant would require about one-third of Memphis’ entire current power demand.
