It’s no secret that the race is on to create the most powerful artificial intelligence models, and over the weekend, billionaire Elon Musk, owner of the social media platform X, surged into the lead.
On Sept. 2, Musk posted that his team at xAI — his AI development and research company — has brought its Colossus 100,000 H100 training cluster online.
Musk said it took his team 122 days to complete the process of bringing Colossus online, and over the next couple of months, it will double in size, bringing it to 200,000.
Musk’s mega model
Colossus is now touted to be the most powerful AI training system available. This number is based on the number of graphics processing units (GPUs) powering the model.
One X user pointed out the actual scale of this development, surpassing every major model released to date. By comparison, OpenAI’s most powerful model uses 80,000 GPUs.
The model was developed in collaboration with Nvidia, the world’s leading semiconductor chip manufacturer. Nvidia’s H200 is one of the most sought-after semiconductors on the market, though it was recently surpassed by the company’s latest Blackwell chip, unveiled in March 2024.
By comparison, the H200 is equipped with 141 gigabytes of HBM3E memory and 4.8 terabytes per second of bandwidth. Blackwell’s top-end capacity is 36.2% higher than the H200 and 66.7% higher in total bandwidth.
Nvidia responded to the unveiling of Colossus by posting congratulations to Musk and the xAI team. It also highlighted that it will be the most powerful and have “exceptional gains” in energy efficiency.
Across social platforms, there has been an overwhelming response from users in the industry calling this a “huge” accomplishment in the field of AI.
Cathie Wood, the CEO of the venture capital firm ARK Invest, also congratulated the team on its achievement, calling it “impressive” and saying that there are “big announcements ahead.”
Cointelegraph reached out to both Nvidia and xAI for comments on the model’s release.
Intelligence in the making
In April 2023, it was widely reported that Musk was purchasing large amounts of GPUs, with some sources reporting up to nearly 10,000 graphics processing units with which he intended to further his xAI projects.
Musk has been very vocal about his plans for development in the AI space. He plans to build a supercomputer that could be operational by the fall of 2025 and form a partnership with Oracle.
While leading the AI revolution, Musk has also supported regulations that promote safe AI.
On Aug. 27, Musk posted on X that he believes the state of California should pass its Senate Bill 1047 — a controversial opinion in the tech industry as many worry it could stifle AI innovation in the US.
He said he’s been an advocate for regulating AI for more than two decades and considers it similar to regulations on “any product/technology that is a potential risk to the public.”
On Aug. 9, X agreed to suspend the processing of personal data for its users in the European Union following legal proceedings in an Irish court involving the local Data Protection Commission.
