MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The largest capital investment by a new-to-market company ever to happen in Memphis could be open by the end of the year.
The big announcement on Wednesday was that xAI, an artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk, will soon call the Bluff City home.
Though it’s already known that Musk produces huge, money-making companies, this one could change Memphis as we know it.
But even with the excitement of the news, it leaves people with questions.
One of which is, “What even is a gigafactory of compute?”
“I hate to say it’s just a very, very large computer, but what it really is fundamentally is that,” Meka Egwuekwe said.
The size of the largest supercomputer in the world doubled and then four times that – is known as the “Gigafactory of Compute” and it will soon be here in Memphis.
“What the gigafactory of compute will do is actually bring together hundreds -even thousands – of these processors to where they work together on very massive computational problems,” Egwuekwe said.
Egwuekwe is the executive director of Code Crew, a nonprofit that teaches computer science and AI to Memphians.
He told WREG that a project like this is exactly what he prepares his students for, calling the announcement of ‘xAI’ huge and positive for the city.
“It puts Memphis on the map as a tech hub,” Egwuekwe said. “It’s been a growing tech hub for some time, but now this kind of confirmation to the tune of several billion dollars certainly has a significant impact.”
It’s not clear how many jobs xAI will bring, but Egwuekwe says in the long run, a project of this caliber can translate into high-paying jobs and career opportunities, not just at xAI, but other massive tech companies that may also want to come to town.
And between Memphis locals and the variety of people this project may bring, Egwuekwe said Memphis is ready to join other tech capitals like San Francisco, Austin and New York.
“Memphis is worthy, capable and ready for these kinds of projects,” Egwuekwe said. “And obviously, Elon Musk agrees.
Several governing bodies still need to give the green light on the project. But if it’s approved, the business could open sometime this year.