Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup, xAI, is reportedly looking to secure a 21-year lease for a plot of land in Memphis, Tennessee. The property, which is currently owned by Economic Development Growth Engine for Memphis and Shelby County (EDGE), spans over 500 acres.
A discussion on xAI’s proposed lease is expected to be discussed on Friday during a special meeting of the industrial board, as noted in a report from Commercial Appeal. The entity seeking the lease is Nashville-based CTC Property LLC, an affiliate of xAI that was incorporated back in March. CTC Property was the entity that filed a certificate of occupancy permit for the site of xAI’s Colossus supercomputer cluster, which is housed in a former Electrolux building.
NEWS: @xAI is looking to lease 552 acres of land in Boxtown Memphis that’s located just to the southeast of xAI’s current facility and which is owned by the Economic and Growth Development Engine (EDGE) pic.twitter.com/4bzJBl9la0
— ALEX (@ajtourville) October 3, 2024
The lease term sheet for the proposed transaction reportedly indicates that CTC Property would be paying $1.65 million annually for the leased property, with payments rising 2.5% every year, Commercial Appeal noted. Upon expiration of xAI’s proposed 21-year lease, the artificial intelligence startup would have the option to purchase the property for $23.64 million.
The lease agreement does not list xAI’s plans for the property. That being said, Musk definitely has plans to expand xAI’s operations quickly. During a recent recruiting event, Musk reportedly noted that he would like xAI to outpace its competitors, similar to how the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird became untouchable during its years of service, as noted in a report from The Verge.
Elon Musk in Founder Mode at the xAI Engineering Open house event in San Francisco.
— SMX 🇺🇸 (@iam_smx) October 2, 2024
“No SR-71 Blackbird was ever shot down and it only had 1 strategy: to accelerate”
-Elon Musk pic.twitter.com/VfvVQUKFhn
“No SR-71 Blackbird was ever shot down, and it only had one strategy–to accelerate,” Musk reportedly highlighted during the event.
xAI’s Colossus supercomputer is comprised of 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, making it one of the most advanced and most powerful superclusters in the market. What is particularly impressive with Colossus, however, was the fact that the xAI team was able to bring the supercomputer cluster online in just 122 days. Musk has stated that Colossus is not complete, as it is expected to double in size in a few months.
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