Colossus supercomputer complex

Overview

The Memphis-area AI training complex built in 122 days in 2024, now ~555,000 Nvidia GPUs (H100/H200/GB200) across Colossus 1 and the gigawatt-class Colossus 2, targeting 1M+ GPUs and ~2 GW - with a third facility, Colossus 3 ('MACROHARDRR' in Southaven, Mississippi, a $20B+ investment), under construction. xAI trains Grok 5 on Colossus 2 while leasing Colossus 1 to Anthropic and capacity to Google - though its temporary gas turbines are the subject of an NAACP emissions lawsuit and a DOJ national-security intervention.

Colossus 1 (~220K GPUs, 300 MW) fully leased to Anthropic at $1.25B/month through May 2029; Colossus 2 hosts xAI's own frontier training plus Google's 110K-GPU contract from October 2026, a third leasing deal signed June 22, 2026 with open-source lab Reflection AI ($150M/month from July 1, 2026 for Nvidia GB300 capacity, up to $6.3B through 2029), and, following the August 14, 2026 close of the Cursor (Anysphere) acquisition, Cursor's engineering teams as well. A fourth building, nicknamed 'Minihard' and confirmed by Musk in late July 2026, is rising alongside Colossus 2 and Colossus 3 with roughly 220,000 GB300 GPUs, pushing the campus toward the 1M-GPU target by Q1-Q2 2027. The NAACP's Clean Air Act suit over turbine emissions (filed April 2026, later amended after discovery found nearly 30 more turbines than first alleged) remains pending: a preliminary-injunction hearing that could have forced a shutdown was scheduled for August 24, 2026 but was postponed per an August 21 court notice, with no new date set as of late August, while the Department of Justice separately continues to press to intervene and dismiss the suit on national-security grounds. Turbine removal itself began as early as August 2026 under the July 31 agreed order with Mississippi regulators, though construction of the permitted 1.2 GW replacement plant is running behind schedule on supply-chain delays for its 41 stationary turbines, and regulators have set a December 31, 2026 deactivation deadline for some units alongside the original July 2027 full-removal date for others.

Key Specs