Elon Musk claims that his AI empire plans to rescue humanity. But for his company, XAI, to achieve this, they want to import a power plant that is fully fossil-fuel powered. Despite so much talk about sustainability from Silicon Valley, one of its loudest voices is going the other direction just to achieve AI domination. With this approach from such a tech giant, the future of our climate is looking scary.
Supercomputers, Super Emissions
Currently, xAI’s data center is already burning 300 MW to power 200,000 Nvidia GPUs, and they are not done yet. The new site, which the company is planning to set up, will run 1 million GPUs. To power these processors, they’ll need at least 2 gigawatts of power. This is the same amount of power needed to power 1.9 million U.S. homes.
You would think that Musk, who has spoken so much and championed renewable energy, will find such an alternative to power these processors. Instead, he is importing a combined-cycle gas turbine plant from overseas. And the reason he’s getting one from overseas is even more alarming: It will take more time to build one in the U.S. Does that mean corners will be cut when it is built overseas?
xAI has started making preparations for this new plant by installing up to 26 gas turbines at the Memphis site, even though it was only permitted to install just 15. Little wonder the Southern Environmental Law Center is preparing a legal challenge under the Clean Air Act. Even local residents, environmental groups, and the NAACP are challenging this regulatory dodge.
Racing to AI Supremacy at Any Environmental Cost
Musk has a simple strategy: move fast, power up, and worry about the consequences later. Already, the AI company has raised $10 billion, intends to raise an additional $20 billion, and is targeting a valuation of $200 billion.
At this stage, money is not a problem, but electricity is. Sadly, renewable energy hasn’t scaled fast enough to feed this AI beast, which is why Musk is going back to natural gas. If AI is the future, it shouldn’t run on dirty fuel.
Read Next: Why Grok Was Always Going to Call Itself MechaHitler