Elon Musk’s xAI to build supercomputer to power next-gen Grok

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is planning to build a supercomputer specifically designed to power the next iteration of its AI chatbot Grok, according to a report by The Information.

Musk wants to have the supercomputer operational by Fall 2025, and “will hold himself responsible for delivering it on time,” the report said citing a presentation by xAI to investors in May.

The proposed supercomputer will reportedly utilize 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs (graphic processing units) and be at least four times larger than the biggest GPU clusters currently in existence, such as those “used by Meta to train its AI models.” This immense power is necessary to train and run the ever-evolving Grok language model.

The report also added that Musk’s company is partnering with Oracle to build the supercomputer.

Queries to xAI and Oracle remain unanswered.

The reported supercomputer project coincides with xAI’s recent announcement of a $6 billion series B funding round.

“xAI is pleased to announce our Series B funding round of $6 billion with participation from key investors including Valor Equity Partners, Vy Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and Kingdom Holding, amongst others,” the company said in a statement.

The funds from the round will be used to take xAI’s first products to market, build advanced infrastructure, and accelerate the research and development of future technologies, the statement added. xAI  also said that it “will continue on this steep trajectory of progress over the coming months, with multiple exciting technology updates and products soon to be announced.”

This funding is expected to fuel xAI’s product development, infrastructure advancements, and future AI research.

Grok’s need for supercomputing power

xAI launched Grok in November 2023 inspired by “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” and projected as “more than just a traditional chatbot.” It strives to answer user queries in an informative and even witty manner, while also prompting users with relevant questions that they might not have considered. 

However, as Grok evolved through iterations like Grok 1.5 with long-context understanding and Grok 1.5V with visual information processing, its computational requirements have dramatically increased. Training Grok 2 model required 20,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs and Grok 3 and beyond would require 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, the report added.

This exceptional growth in computational requirements necessitates a supercomputer. The current frontrunners in the supercomputer race are Frontier (US), Aurora (US), Eagle (US), and Fugaku (Japan). While the exact specifications of xAI’s planned supercomputer are not known yet, it would fall within the supercomputer category, if xAI’s above claims are met, potentially challenging the dominance of existing machines.