Data Center Atlas
xAI Colossus 1 (Memphis)
Operational
United States · 1 project · Last reported
Summary
AI supercomputer that xAI built in 2024 inside the former Electrolux manufacturing plant on Paul R. Lowry Road in southwest Memphis. Grid power comes from MLGW and TVA through an existing MLGW substation and a new one paid for by xAI, supplemented by permitted on-site gas turbines and battery storage. Anthropic now describes Colossus 1 as SpaceX's data center, and in May 2026 it agreed to use all of the site's compute capacity, stated as more than 300 MW and over 220,000 NVIDIA GPUs.
Source record as of 2026-10-05 · Details and sources
Location
The interactive map needs JavaScript. Display anchor: 35.05990, -90.15630 (Point locator, WGS 84).
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Project locator; building footprints are not mapped.
Projects (1)
xAI Colossus 1 (Memphis)
Operational last observed as of · Reported status
Location: Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, US. Center of the OpenStreetMap building tagged 'xAI Colossus' at 3231 Paul R. Lowery Road, taken from this project's OpenStreetMap data center layer (no geocoder call). The address comes from Cleanview and from Memphis Business Journal reporting cited by WMC; MLGW places the facility in the former Electrolux plant in Frank C. Pidgeon Industrial Park. Shelby County is the jurisdiction of the health department that permitted the site's turbines. WMC Action News 5; Memphis Light, Gas and Water; WMC Action News 5; Cleanview
Use: Ai training, Ai inference
Capacity, investment and other figures
| Measure | Value | Scope | As of | Notes | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Power capacity | 150 MW | Operational · Campus · Grid connection | 2025-05-05 | Delivered through an existing MLGW substation (8 MW) and a new substation funded by xAI (142 MW). | Memphis Light, Gas and Water |
| Power capacity | 300 MW | Planned · Campus · Grid connection | 2025-05-05 | Total of two successive 150 MW requests; MLGW expected to supply the second 150 MW by December 2025 if TVA approved it. | Memphis Light, Gas and Water |
| Power capacity | more than 300 MW | Contracted · Campus · Unspecified | 2026-05-06 | Capacity covered by Anthropic's agreement; the announcement does not say whether this is IT load or total power. | Anthropic |
| Power capacity | about 340 MW | Operational · Campus · It load | 2026-06-15 | Epoch AI analyst estimate, not a company disclosure, based on satellite imagery and public information. Epoch shows this level from July 22, 2025 through its latest observation on June 15, 2026. | Epoch AI |
| Power capacity | about 198 MW | Operational · Campus · Onsite generation | 2026-05 | Cleanview count of 12 Solar SMT-130 gas turbines of about 16.5 MW each in May 2026 imagery; Cleanview says temporary turbines are being removed. This is an analyst estimate, not a company disclosure. | Cleanview |
| Accelerators | more than 220,000 count | Installed · Campus | 2026-05-06 | Count from Anthropic. Epoch AI estimates about 230,000 chips: 150,000 H100, 50,000 H200 and 30,000 B200 in GB200 configuration (analyst estimate, not a company disclosure). | Anthropic; Epoch AI |
| Investment | about 12,900,000,000 USD | Reported · Campus | 2026-10-05 | Epoch AI capital cost estimate (analyst estimate, not a company disclosure); the page does not say what the figure includes. | Epoch AI |
Companies and organizations
| Name | Role | Notes | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| xAI | Developer | WMC Action News 5; Memphis Light, Gas and Water; WMC Action News 5 | |
| SpaceX | Owner | Anthropic's May 2026 announcement refers to Colossus 1 as SpaceX's data center, and Epoch AI (analyst) lists the owner as SpaceXAI; no company filing reviewed states ownership. | Anthropic; Epoch AI |
| Anthropic | Tenant | Agreed in May 2026 to use all of the compute capacity at Colossus 1. | Anthropic |
| Memphis Light, Gas and Water | Utility | Memphis Light, Gas and Water | |
| Tennessee Valley Authority | Power supplier | TVA's board approved the first 150 MW of grid service; MLGW said a decision on a second 150 MW was pending in May 2025. | Memphis Light, Gas and Water |
| Shelby County Health Department | Government | Approved the July 2025 air permit for 15 permanent on-site gas turbines. | WMC Action News 5 |
Timeline
| Date | Event | Actual or planned | Notes | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-04 | Construction started | Actual | Epoch AI dates the start of work at the former Electrolux building, when a road was added on site, to April 24, 2024 from satellite imagery (analyst estimate, not a company disclosure). | Epoch AI |
| 2024-06-05 | Announced | Actual | The Greater Memphis Chamber announced the project without naming the site. | WMC Action News 5 |
| 2024-08 | First operational | Actual | Epoch AI reports the first training workload, on about 25,000 H100 GPUs, on August 11, 2024 (analyst estimate, not a company disclosure). | Epoch AI |
| 2025-07 | Permit approved | Actual | Shelby County Health Department approved an air permit for 15 permanent natural gas turbines; WMC reported it on July 2, 2025 without an exact approval date, and Cleanview confirms the site was permitted for 15 turbines. | WMC Action News 5; Cleanview |
| 2026-05-06 | Other | Actual | Anthropic announced an agreement to use all of the compute capacity at Colossus 1. | Anthropic |
Power supply
| Type | Description | Sources |
|---|---|---|
| Grid | MLGW and TVA grid service of 150 MW in May 2025 via an existing and a new xAI-funded substation, with a second 150 MW requested; xAI agreed to curtail grid use during peak demand. | Memphis Light, Gas and Water |
| Natural gas onsite | Shelby County permitted 15 permanent gas turbines in July 2025; Cleanview estimated about 198 MW from 12 turbines in May 2026 imagery (analyst estimate). | WMC Action News 5; Cleanview |
| Battery storage | Cleanview counts roughly 119 Tesla Megapack units, about 120 MW, from satellite imagery (analyst estimate). | Cleanview |
Related projects: xai colossus 2 memphis, xai macrohardrr southaven
Sources for these details
- Elon Musk's xAI to build multi-billion-dollar supercomputer project in Memphis — WMC Action News 5; 2024-06-05 · Archived source
- MLGW update regarding utility support for xAI — Memphis Light, Gas and Water; 2025-05-05
- Health dept. grants permit for xAI turbines — WMC Action News 5; 2025-07-02
- xAI raises billions of dollars for expansion amid rapid growth in Memphis metro — WMC Action News 5; 2026-01-07 · Archived source
- Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX — Anthropic; 2026-05-06 · Archived source
- Colossus 1 | AI data centers — Epoch AI; 2026-10-05
- Colossus 1 & 2 | Behind-the-Meter Data Centers — Cleanview; publication date not stated
- Companies
- Developer: xAI (unknown scope) evidence
- Developer: xAI (unknown scope) evidence
- Developer: xAI (unknown scope) evidence
- Owner: SpaceX (unknown scope) evidence
- Owner: SpaceX (unknown scope) evidence
- Tenant: Anthropic (unknown scope) evidence
- Utility: Memphis Light, Gas and Water (unknown scope) evidence
- Power Supplier: Tennessee Valley Authority (unknown scope) evidence
- Government: Shelby County Health Department (unknown scope) evidence
Source and location review
- Status source
- Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX evidence row
Anthropic · published 2026-05-06 · Company disclosure - Locator
- Project locator · Compiled location reference · site evidence
- Source checks
Not reviewed against imagery not_
reviewed
No imagery review is recorded for this project. Its status rests only on the dated authoritative source. · no independent imagery verificationStatus age at review: 22 days before the data update on 2026-10-27
Location details
- Coordinates
- 35.05990, -90.15630
- Geometry licence
- source-terms-not-recorded
- Use scope
- Project locator
- Scope class
- site
- Authority
- Compiled location reference
- Source entity
- Project
- Method
- imported_reference_point
- Derivation
- imported_reference_point
- Precision scope
- Center of the OpenStreetMap building tagged 'xAI Colossus' at 3231 Paul R. Lowery Road, taken from this project's OpenStreetMap data center layer (no geocoder call). The address comes from Cleanview and from Memphis Business Journal reporting cited by WMC; MLGW places the facility in the former Electrolux plant in Frank C. Pidgeon Industrial Park. Shelby County is the jurisdiction of the health department that permitted the site's turbines.
- Horizontal uncertainty
Not reported
The source record provides no measured horizontal uncertainty; original coordinate precision and note are preserved.
- Geometry evidence
- f683c140
A locator places the site on the map. It is not a building footprint, a construction extent or a surveyed boundary unless the use scope is an official boundary, and even then it is a parcel or permit boundary.
Evidence
Sources are linked, not redistributed; each keeps its own terms. An archived copy is a lookup for the Wayback Machine capture nearest the retrieval date and may be unavailable or differ from what was reviewed. Each hash states what it covers; imported factual records are not publisher-page captures.
| Title | Publisher | Roles | Published | Retrieved | Licence | Attribution | Content hash (SHA-256) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colossus 1 & 2 | Behind-the-Meter Data Centers Archived copy | Cleanview Analyst report | Imported: Geometry, Imported: Record, Metric: Power Capacity, Milestone: Permit Approved, Power Source: Battery Storage, Power Source: Natural Gas Onsite | not stated | source-terms-not-recorded | Cleanview | fff5195966282311725631fc6ef5fe462ea7a0fcf4022d06606d7feedd887811Factual source record; not the publisher page | |
| Colossus 1 | AI data centers Archived copy | Epoch AI Analyst report | Imported: Record, Imported: Status, Metric: Accelerators, Metric: Investment, Metric: Power Capacity, Milestone: Construction Started, Milestone: First Operational, Owner claim | source-terms-not-recorded | Epoch AI | d3b820d385ec22e5c8f6011470eb4a564b2e49b1d525ab15d6aeb49cd9d986bbFactual source record; not the publisher page | ||
| Elon Musk's xAI to build multi-billion-dollar supercomputer project in Memphis Archived copy | WMC Action News 5 News | Imported: Geometry, Imported: Record, Milestone: Announced, Role: Developer | source-terms-not-recorded | WMC Action News 5 | a2ee46b5d8611f09e7fb2a1cd33a3b4c2737cfd7d00a9440e9ec6fada776d7c9Factual source record; not the publisher page | ||
| Health dept. grants permit for xAI turbines Archived copy | WMC Action News 5 News | Imported: Geometry, Imported: Record, Milestone: Permit Approved, Power Source: Natural Gas Onsite, Role: Government | source-terms-not-recorded | WMC Action News 5 | 066d121153f6675c8bd098adf02dbfb0a3ea7131072ba40b8cae52b37b6ad765Factual source record; not the publisher page | ||
| Higher usage limits for Claude and a compute deal with SpaceX Archived copy | Anthropic Company disclosure | Imported: Record, Imported: Status, Metric: Accelerators, Metric: Power Capacity, Milestone: Other, Owner claim, Tenant claim | source-terms-not-recorded | Anthropic | efa2b034ccd9936da47e01c1e52c5979243f485a1567e77b73ca02654e1e0241Factual source record; not the publisher page | ||
| MLGW update regarding utility support for xAI Archived copy | Memphis Light, Gas and Water Utility disclosure | Imported: Geometry, Imported: Record, Metric: Power Capacity, Power Source: Grid, Role: Developer, Role: Power Supplier, Role: Utility | source-terms-not-recorded | Memphis Light, Gas and Water | 0fcf468e41024109b3940ce841f2121531263213db19780aed00332035f9a1b2Factual source record; not the publisher page | ||
| xAI raises billions of dollars for expansion amid rapid growth in Memphis metro Archived copy | WMC Action News 5 News | Imported: Record, Role: Developer | source-terms-not-recorded | WMC Action News 5 | c330ce2a7b47a4c7d30a2a2c94e9c7ae588715edb1b11d49adb0f30a5947f8d2Factual source record; not the publisher page |
Cite this site
Kyars, K. (2026). xAI Colossus 1 (Memphis) [site vcc-site-837c77c61e73b3c11714]. In Data Center Atlas (2026-10-27) [Data set]. https://kiankyars.github.io/datacenter-atlas/sites/vcc-site-837c77c61e73b3c11714/
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