🤖 Elon and xAI find new home in Memphis

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Howdy Memphis! Welcome to the This is Memphis newsletter, where we give you the news as sweet as challah french toast (iykyk).

In today’s newsletter:

• Elon Musk coming to the Bluff City 〽️ 

• Babe Ruth playing in Memphis ⚾️ 

• Germantown Charity Horse Show 🐎 

• New observation deck coming to the Mississippi 🕊️ 

And so much more! Let’s get to it.

-Jonah Baer & Reuben Skahill

🤖 Elon finds home for xAI startup in the 901

Question: what do you get when you put Elon Musk, challah french toast, and his new AI startup in the same room?

You get Elon Musk’s newest venture, xAI, announcing that they’re setting up shop for his AI supercomputer in Memphis. Dad jokes aside, the startup is reported to be valued at $26 billion, raising $6 billion last month, making them the largest new-to-market investment in Memphis’ history.

Musk wasn’t present for the announcement on Wednesday, but it was confirmed when he replied “True” to the announcement on Twitter.

Apparently, a new Elvis is in the building?

(But hold on a minute… does this mean Elon might be the one behind the recent Graceland foreclosure scam? Did he want to buy Graceland? The world might never know… 😂)

Okay, enough of the conspiracies. On to the important stuff.

Here’s what we know:

The supercomputer will be built at the old Electrolux site (not Graceland) and will house thousands of advanced semiconductors essential for AI computing. This facility, aimed at powering xAI’s chatbot Grok (a rival to ChatGPT), is expected to be worth billions.

Mayor Paul Young highlighted that this move signifies Memphis’s push into the tech startup world. And according to Memphis Chamber of Commerce’s Ted Townsend, his team finalized the deal and began work on the project in under 90 days, establishing themselves as the best choice for Elon and his new AI startup.