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Elon Musk’s “Gigafactory of Compute”, the Colossus xAIreceived approval in early November from the Tennessee Valley Authority to receive 150 MW from the state’s power grid. This increases the site’s initial supply of 8 MW by almost twenty times, sparking concerns from local stakeholders about the impact of this demand for xAI energy on supply reliability and prices electricity in the Tennessee Valley. Furthermore, International power grid reports that Elon plans to double the site’s computing capacitythus doubling the energy needs of the installation.

xAI has made herculean efforts to set up this supercomputer, which it only took 19 days for the company to establish itself (versus the four years it usually takes, according to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang). However, the site only had 8 MW available when it opened in July. So, Musk used massive portable electric generators to meet business needs. While Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) upgraded the existing substation to 50 MW over the summer, running all 100,000 GPUs on site simultaneously is insufficient.

Experts estimate that Musk needs 155 MW to run 100,000 GPUs, so his request of 150 MW for the xAI site is conservative. Still, some are concerned about the impact of such demand on the state’s electricity supply.

“We are alarmed that the TVA board approved xAI’s request for power without studying the impact it will have on local communities,” said Amanda Garcia, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center. “Last year, TVA questioned electricity reliability and proposed a new dirty gas plant in South Memphis, and today Council members expressed concern about the impact of large industrial energy users on electricity bills throughout the Tennessee Valley. TVA should prioritize families over data centers like xAI.

Power Grid Internation reports that MLGW, the distribution company that provides power to the xAI supercomputer, assured the Memphis City Council that xAI’s energy demands “would not strain the grid or have any ‘impact on the reliability of local customers’. Its CEO, Doug McGowen, says the additional 150 MW it will provide to the company remains within the utility’s peak load forecast and that it could buy more power from TVA if necessary.

This approval will give Elon Musk the power to drive his massive AI supercomputer. Experts say data centers will need gigawatts of power to train future AI models, something the local power grid likely won’t be able to handle without massive upgrades. This is why many companies, including Amazon, Google, MicrosoftAnd Oracleinvest in nuclear power to meet their future needs. However, deployment will take five years or more, so data centers must make do with existing infrastructure until these research and development efforts bear fruit.