XAI Colossus 2 – First Gigawatt AI Training Data Center

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XAI Colossus II is the world’s first Gigawatt AI training cluster. The picture is an aerial view of the gigawatt data center.

xAI’s Colossus 2 represents a monumental leap in AI infrastructure, designed as the world’s first gigawatt-scale AI training supercluster. Built as an expansion of the original Colossus 1 (which currently operates 230,000 GPUs, including 30,000 GB200s, for Grok model training). Colossus 2 aims to deliver unprecedented compute power for training next-generation AI models like Grok. Elon Musk has described it as the world’s first Gigawatt+ AI training supercomputer

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The core facility is a 1 million square foot warehouse on Tulane Road in Shelby County, Tennessee (near the former Electrolux site), with two adjacent 100-acre sites acquired on March 7, 2025. To address power constraints and local regulatory pushback in Tennessee, xAI expanded across the state line to Southaven, Mississippi, acquiring a former Duke Energy natural gas power plant site in mid-2025.

Key timeline milestones

Mid-February 2025. Groundbreaking at Tulane Road site in Shelby County, TN.

March 7, 2025
Acquisition of 1 million sq ft warehouse and 100 acres in Memphis/TN area; initial phase deployment begins.

Mid-2025
Acquisition of Southaven, MS power plant; temporary approval for gas turbines (up to 12 months without full permit).

Late July/Early August 2025
Phase 1 online: 130,000 NVIDIA GB200 GPUs powered up.

Mid-August 2025
First batch of 550,000 GB200/GB300 GPUs begins deployment.

August 22, 2025
119 air-cooled chillers installed, reaching ~200 MW cooling capacity (supporting ~110,000 GB200 NVL72-scale GPUs).

Exact dates unclear
Full 1 GW data center operational.

Mid-Late 2026
Potential expansion to 3 GW total capacity begins.

Initial phase: 110,000 NVIDIA GB200s. Full batch: 550,000 GB200s and GB300s. Total target: Up to 1 million GPUs across phases.