Dell, Super Micro providing server racks for Elon Musk’s xAI’s supercomputer

BENGALURU - Dell Technologies and Super Micro Computer will provide server racks for the supercomputer that Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence start-up xAI is building.

Dell is assembling half of the racks for xAI’s supercomputer, Mr Musk said on X. In a reply to another post enquiring about the second partner, the billionaire said “SMC” - referring to server maker Super Micro.

San Francisco-based Super Micro, known for its close ties with chip firms like Nvidia and its liquid-cooling technology, confirmed the partnership with xAI to Reuters.

Dell chief executive Michael Dell also said in a separate post on X that the company was building an “AI factory” with AI heavyweight Nvidia that would power the next version of xAI’s chatbot Grok.

Mr Musk has told investors that his AI start-up xAI is planning to build a supercomputer to power the next version of its AI chatbot Grok, according to a report by the Information in May.

Training of AI models such as xAI’s Grok requires tens of thousands of power-hungry chips that are in short supply.

Earlier this year, Mr Musk said training the Grok 2 model took about 20,000 Nvidia H100 graphic processing units (GPUs), adding that the Grok 3 model and beyond will require 100,000 Nvidia H100 chips.

Mr Musk has said he wants to get the proposed supercomputer running by the fall of 2025, according to the Information.

Mr Musk founded xAI last year as a challenger to Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Alphabet’s Google.

Mr Musk was instrumental to OpenAI’s founding, but withdrew his support and warned of the dangers of AI to humanity. His -launched its ChatGPT competitor Grok last November and raised US$6 billion (S$8 billion) in venture capital funding in May at a pre-money valuation of US$18 billion. REUTERS