Musk goes all-in on AI data centers... xAI seeks ₩16 trillion funding for Colossus 2
Summary
- Elon Musk's AI startup xAI is reportedly seeking to raise $12 billion to construct the Colossus 2 AI data center.
- xAI revealed it is rapidly spending large sums to purchase AI chips in bulk and directly build its own data center.
- Although investment firms are participating in this round, investment negotiations may face difficulties over the loan scale and repayment terms.

Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX, is reportedly raising $12 billion (about ₩16.6 trillion) to build a data center for artificial intelligence (AI) development, according to The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) on the 22nd (local time).
Citing sources, the outlet reported that as Musk's AI startup xAI quickly exhausts its funds, Musk is seeking to raise an additional $12 billion to purchase AI chips. WSJ stated, "Musk is mobilizing all possible financial means to stay competitive in the AI hardware race."
According to the report, this round of fundraising for xAI is being led by Valor Equity Partners, an investment firm closely linked to Antonio Gracias, and the procured funds are expected to be used for the construction of a new data center needed to train and operate xAI's AI chatbot 'Grok.'
Previously, at the end of last month, xAI raised $5 billion in secured bonds and loans through Morgan Stanley. WSJ also reported on the 12th that SpaceX had invested $2 billion in xAI.
The outlet explained that, unlike competitors like OpenAI and Anthropic that rent the data centers of existing cloud computing companies, xAI has spent massive funds to directly build its own data center and purchase AI chips on a large scale.
Last year, Musk built the first large-scale data center, 'Colossus,' in Memphis, Tennessee, in just 122 days. Initially, this data center was equipped with 100,000 of NVIDIA's GPUs, and just 92 days later, the number of GPUs doubled to 200,000.
Jensen Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, praised Musk on a podcast last year, saying, "That is a superhuman feat, and as far as I know, there’s only one person in the world who can do that," and added, "Elon has a unique understanding of engineering, construction, large-scale systems, and resource mobilization."
Musk's current fundraising effort appears to be for the construction of a second data center, 'Colossus 2.' However, the outlet added that investment negotiations may be challenging due to differences over the scale of loans and repayment periods.
Reporter: Kang Kyung-joo qurasoha@hankyung.com

Korea Economic Daily
hankyung@bloomingbit.ioThe Korea Economic Daily Global is a digital media where latest news on Korean companies, industries, and financial markets.
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