With 100,000 liquid-cooled H100 GPUs installed, Elon Musk’s Memphis Supercluster went online recently. This data center will consume a lot of electricity. Musk’s AI data center will require up to 70 megawatts of electricity to run all 100,000 GPUs continuously since each H100 GPU consumes at least 700 watts. And that’s before we include all of the accompanying servers, networking, and cooling hardware.
Unexpectedly, Musk powers the complex with fourteen enormous mobile generators while he negotiates power supply contracts with nearby utilities.
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Heading SemiAnalysis, Dylan Patel is an AI and semiconductor analyst. Initially, he rumored on X that power limitations prevented Musk from managing the Memphis Supercluster. According to him, the current pull from the grid is only 7 MW, which is insufficient to power about 4,000 GPUs.
If xAI signs a prospective arrangement, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will send 50 MW to the facility; however, this can only happen by August 1 at the latest. Patel also noted that work on the 150 MW substation at the xAI site is ongoing and won’t be completed until 24Q4.
But immediately after looking at satellite images, Patel sent out a fresh tweet after realizing how Musk had achieved it: by connecting 14 VoltaGrid mobile generators to what appear to be four mobile substations.
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With the 2.5 MW of power that each of these semi-trailer-sized generators can produce, Musk now has an amazing 35 MW of power accessible on-site. Together with the 8 MW of power the Memphis Supercluster receives from the grid, this adds up to 43 MW, which should be sufficient to run the 32,000 H100 GPUs within power limitations, given that additional power requirements are also required for infrastructure, cooling, CPUs, motherboards, and other components.
Again, only considering the GPU power requirements, Musk might have enough power to run 64,000 GPUs continuously if the Tennessee Valley Authority provides the 50 MW he needs by the beginning of August. According to Patel, 100,000 GPUs require about 155 MW of power, and xAI will require the substation to be operational to obtain it. Therefore, Musk will either use more mobile generators to obtain the necessary power or the substation will be completed ahead of schedule.
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Musk is putting all of his effort and resources into making XAI the leader in AI development. We do, however, intend to use mobile generators as a stopgap measure. The TVA can supply a cleaner energy source that the Memphis Supercluster needs to make the switch to. If xAI sourced its power from TVA instead of depending on mobile generators that utilize natural gas alone, its carbon footprint should be less than that of the latter, which employs a combination of nuclear, hydroelectric, and fossil fuel facilities.
