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Musk’s xAI buys third building to expand AI compute power

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xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk, has acquired a third building as part of its effort to significantly expand computing capacity, Musk said on Tuesday. The move is aimed at boosting xAI’s training infrastructure to nearly 2 gigawatts of compute power.

The expansion highlights xAI’s ambition to compete more aggressively with leading AI developers such as OpenAI, which develops ChatGPT, and Anthropic, creator of the Claude chatbot. xAI’s main supercomputer cluster, known as Colossus and located in Memphis, Tennessee, has been described by Musk as the largest in the world.

“xAI has bought a third building called MACROHARDRR,” Musk wrote on X, without revealing the site’s exact location. The name appears to be a play on Microsoft, a major investor in OpenAI.

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The Information, which reported the development earlier citing property records and a person familiar with the matter, said the new building is intended to support a third large-scale data centre planned outside Memphis.

According to the report, xAI plans to expand Colossus to house at least 1 million graphics processing units (GPUs). The company is expected to begin converting the newly acquired warehouse into a data centre in 2026. Both the planned facility and a separate expansion known as Colossus 2 are located near a natural gas power plant that xAI is building, alongside access to other power sources.

The rapid build-out of AI infrastructure has drawn criticism from environmental groups, who warn that large data centres consume vast amounts of energy and place strain on local power grids.

SoftBank completes $41 billion investment in OpenAI, deepening bet on AI

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SoftBank Group said it has completed a $41 billion investment in OpenAI, marking one of the largest private funding rounds ever and giving the Japanese group an ownership stake of about 11% in the maker of ChatGPT.

The move underscores SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son’s increasingly aggressive push into artificial intelligence, which he has described as an “all in” bet. Son is positioning SoftBank to capitalise on booming demand for AI computing power, spanning both software and the physical infrastructure that underpins advanced models.

SoftBank said it completed an additional $22.5 billion investment on Wednesday, following an earlier $7.5 billion injection in April. OpenAI also secured an expanded syndicated co-investment of $11 billion from other backers as part of the round. In March, SoftBank had agreed to invest up to $40 billion into a for-profit OpenAI subsidiary, with the funding structured through a mix of direct capital and syndicated investments.

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The transaction initially valued OpenAI at about $300 billion on a post-money basis. However, a subsequent secondary share sale completed in October pushed OpenAI’s valuation to roughly $500 billion, according to PitchBook data. CNBC first reported the completion of the latest investment earlier in the day.

The deal comes as artificial intelligence has become the central driver of global technology investment, reshaping corporate strategies and investor expectations. OpenAI has emerged as a key beneficiary of that shift, sitting at the heart of an industry-wide surge in AI spending.

OpenAI is also a core participant in “Stargate,” a large-scale, multi-year data centre initiative being developed alongside Oracle and other partners. The project aims to support next-generation AI models and is backed by major investors including SoftBank, further linking the group’s capital deployment to the infrastructure required for future AI growth.

SoftBank to Acquire DigitalBridge in $4 Billion Deal to Strengthen AI Infrastructure Strategy

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SoftBank Group has agreed to acquire digital infrastructure investor DigitalBridge Group in a deal valued at $4 billion, the companies announced on Monday. The acquisition marks another step in SoftBank’s effort to reshape its portfolio around artificial intelligence and the computing infrastructure that supports it.

Under the terms of the agreement, SoftBank will pay $16 per share for DigitalBridge, representing a 15% premium over the company’s closing price on Friday. The offer values DigitalBridge at approximately $2.92 billion, with the transaction expected to close in the second half of next year. Following the announcement, DigitalBridge shares rose about 9.7% to $15.27, extending gains after a 45% rally earlier this month when takeover talks were first reported.

The deal significantly expands SoftBank’s exposure to digital infrastructure assets, including data centers, cell towers, fiber networks, small-cell systems and edge infrastructure. DigitalBridge’s portfolio includes major assets such as Vantage Data Centers, Zayo, Switch and AtlasEdge, positioning the firm as a key player in the backbone of global data and connectivity.

SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has repeatedly emphasized the importance of computing power in enabling next-generation AI applications. The acquisition aligns with his broader vision to capitalize on surging demand for data processing capacity driven by artificial intelligence workloads.

Industry reaction was cautiously optimistic. Jacob Yahiayan, CEO of Urban Logistic Advisory Services, an investor in DigitalBridge, described the acquisition as “a milestone in solving critical infrastructure issues,” while noting that SoftBank remains far from controlling a significant share of the global hardware- and software-as-a-service market.

Founded in 1991 as Colony Capital, DigitalBridge shifted its strategy under CEO Marc Ganzi, pivoting away from traditional real estate toward digital infrastructure and rebranding in 2021. Ganzi will continue to lead DigitalBridge as a separately managed platform following the acquisition.

As of September 30, DigitalBridge managed approximately $108 billion in assets, making it one of the largest dedicated investors in the digital infrastructure ecosystem. The company is also involved in the Stargate project, alongside OpenAI, Oracle and Abu Dhabi-based investor MGX, a large-scale computing initiative aimed at supporting advanced AI development.