Musk Plans 10GW xAI Data Centers by 2027

According to overseas media reports, Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, revealed during a SpaceX employee meeting that SpaceX AI (formerly xAI) plans to expand the power capacity of its AI data centers by nearly seven times by the end of next year, reaching 10GW. This would represent a significant increase from the current combined capacity of approximately 1.4GW across its Memphis and Southaven facilities, marking a more than sixfold expansion within around 18 months.

According to a report by Tom’s Hardware on August 13, Musk stated during the company-wide meeting that SpaceX AI has already built what he described as the “world’s most powerful AI training cluster” and plans to scale the facility’s overall capacity to roughly 10 times its current size by the end of next year.

Musk estimated that if AI computing capacity reaches 10GW as planned, and each watt of infrastructure generates approximately $30 to $50 in value, xAI could potentially generate annual revenue of $300 billion to $500 billion.

However, industry observers noted that data center power capacity measured in gigawatts does not directly translate into AI computing performance. A significant portion of energy is consumed by supporting infrastructure, including cooling systems, power delivery equipment, networking, storage, lighting, and servers. The actual power available for AI computation will depend on the overall efficiency of the data center architecture.

Analysts believe that if Musk’s expansion plan is successfully implemented, xAI could become one of the world’s leading AI infrastructure operators. However, the ambitious roadmap also presents major challenges, including massive capital investment requirements, energy supply constraints, advanced cooling technologies, and complex infrastructure deployment.

A 10GW data center power scale is comparable to the output of multiple large nuclear power plants. Securing sufficient electricity, improving thermal management technologies, and coordinating hardware and infrastructure deployment will be critical factors determining whether xAI’s AI expansion strategy can become reality. The market will continue to monitor the company’s financing plans and construction progress.