Elon Musk and Jensen Huang shared plans to build some of the world’s largest data centers in the Middle East as Mohammed bin Salman continues his visit to the United States.
Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 13, 2024.Allison Robbert / POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Elon Musk, CEO of xAI and Tesla, announced a massive new data center project in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s continues his formal visit to the United States on Wednesday.
In partnership with Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN AI company, which was established with the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, Musk said the 500-megawatt data center for xAI would be powered by Nvidia’s computing chips.
In comparison, xAI’s Colossus 1 data center in Memphis — one of the world’s largest working computing clusters — represents around 300 megawatts of computing power.
Separately, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced a 100-megawatt data center for Amazon Web Services “with a gigawatt ambition and counting,” also to be powered by Nvidia chips.
Wednesday’s announcements come on the heels of Tuesday’s unveiling of a new AI Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, giving “the Kingdom access to world-leading American systems while protecting U.S. technology from foreign influence,” according to the White House.
Sharing the stage with Huang and Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha, Musk laid out a vision of the future replete with robots and AI data centers in outer space.
“Humanoid robots will be the biggest product ever,” Musk said, declaring that the ubiquitous robots will render work optional to a round of applause at the Kennedy Center.
Predicting the future of the AI computing industry, Musk said: “Perhaps in the four or five-year time frame, the lowest-cost way to do AI compute will be with solar-powered AI satellites.”
Musk initially tripped over the size of xAI’s data center announcement, appearing to announce a 500 gigawatt data center — around 10 times larger than the world’s current data center energy consumption — before clarifying such a construction would cost “eight bazillion trillion dollars.”
www.nbcnews.com
Elon Musk listens as President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 13, 2024.Allison Robbert / POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Elon Musk, CEO of xAI and Tesla, announced a massive new data center project in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s continues his formal visit to the United States on Wednesday.
In partnership with Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN AI company, which was established with the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, Musk said the 500-megawatt data center for xAI would be powered by Nvidia’s computing chips.
In comparison, xAI’s Colossus 1 data center in Memphis — one of the world’s largest working computing clusters — represents around 300 megawatts of computing power.
Separately, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced a 100-megawatt data center for Amazon Web Services “with a gigawatt ambition and counting,” also to be powered by Nvidia chips.
Wednesday’s announcements come on the heels of Tuesday’s unveiling of a new AI Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, giving “the Kingdom access to world-leading American systems while protecting U.S. technology from foreign influence,” according to the White House.
Sharing the stage with Huang and Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Alswaha, Musk laid out a vision of the future replete with robots and AI data centers in outer space.
“Humanoid robots will be the biggest product ever,” Musk said, declaring that the ubiquitous robots will render work optional to a round of applause at the Kennedy Center.
Predicting the future of the AI computing industry, Musk said: “Perhaps in the four or five-year time frame, the lowest-cost way to do AI compute will be with solar-powered AI satellites.”
Musk initially tripped over the size of xAI’s data center announcement, appearing to announce a 500 gigawatt data center — around 10 times larger than the world’s current data center energy consumption — before clarifying such a construction would cost “eight bazillion trillion dollars.”
Elon Musk announces massive xAI data center in Saudi Arabia
Elon Musk and Jensen Huang shared plans to build some of the world’s largest data centers in the Middle East as Mohammed bin Salman continues his visit to the United States.
www.nbcnews.com