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Musk’s xAI to Invest Over $20 Billion in Mississippi Data Center

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xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk, will invest more than $20 billion to build a large-scale data center in Southaven, Mississippi, state Governor Tate Reeves said on Thursday.

The investment comes as booming demand for generative AI drives tech companies to sharply expand computing infrastructure. Data centers have become a focal point for spending by AI startups and hyperscalers seeking to train increasingly powerful models.

According to the governor’s statement, xAI expects to begin operations at the Southaven data center in February 2026. Musk had previously announced on December 30 that xAI had acquired a data center named “MACROHARDRR,” saying the facility would lift the company’s total computing capacity to 2 gigawatts, though he did not disclose the investment size or location at the time.

The Southaven site is located near a power plant recently acquired by xAI and close to its existing data center footprint in Memphis, Tennessee, the statement said. Memphis is home to xAI’s flagship supercomputer cluster, Colossus, which the company has described as the largest in the world.

The expansion highlights xAI’s aggressive push to compete more directly with leading AI developers such as OpenAI and Anthropic, whose ChatGPT and Claude models dominate much of the current generative AI market.

xAI’s spending underscores the heavy cash demands of the AI race. Bloomberg reported earlier on Thursday that the company burned $7.8 billion in cash during the first nine months of the year, reflecting the high cost of advanced data center hardware and large-scale model training.

OpenAI Explores Generative AI Health Tools in Expansion Beyond ChatGPT

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OpenAI is reportedly exploring consumer health products, including a generative AI-powered personal health assistant, as part of its efforts to expand beyond its core AI offerings, according to Business Insider, citing people familiar with the matter.

The move marks a major step for the ChatGPT developer as it looks to enter the highly regulated and competitive healthcare sector. OpenAI declined to comment on the report.

The company’s healthcare ambitions come after a series of strategic hires earlier this year. In June, OpenAI appointed Nate Gross, cofounder of the physician networking platform Doximity, as head of healthcare strategy, followed by former Instagram executive Ashley Alexander joining as vice president of health products in August.

Speaking at the HLTH conference in October, Gross revealed that ChatGPT attracts around 800 million weekly active users, with a significant number seeking medical or health-related advice through the platform.

OpenAI’s expansion into health mirrors earlier efforts by Google, Amazon, and Microsoft to give consumers more control over their medical data—attempts that largely fell short. Google shut down its Health Records project in 2011, Amazon ended its Halo fitness tracker business in 2023, and Microsoft’s HealthVault also failed to gain widespread adoption.

If realized, OpenAI’s health assistant could integrate generative AI with personalized wellness and medical insights, potentially transforming how consumers manage their health. However, regulatory and ethical challenges around data privacy and medical accuracy are expected to be key hurdles.

Getty and Perplexity Sign Multi-Year Deal to Integrate Licensed Images into AI Search Tools

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Visual content leader Getty Images has signed a multi-year licensing agreement with AI search startup Perplexity, allowing the platform to display Getty’s licensed images across its AI-powered search and discovery tools. The announcement boosted Getty’s shares by 5% on Friday, underscoring growing investor confidence in partnerships between traditional media and artificial intelligence companies.

Under the deal, Perplexity will integrate Getty’s visuals through an API, granting users access to Getty’s vast image library with proper attribution and licensing details. Each image will include credits and source links, ensuring legal compliance and transparency in AI-generated content.

The partnership comes amid growing scrutiny over AI firms’ use of copyrighted materials for training and output generation. Getty, which also licenses images to iStock and Unsplash, previously sued Stability AI over alleged image scraping. Perplexity itself has faced multiple copyright lawsuits from publishers including Japan’s Nikkei and Asahi Shimbun but has since adopted a revenue-sharing model with media partners such as TIME and Der Spiegel.

Legal experts say AI licensing agreements like this one could reshape the industry by legitimizing data use, though they note that a full licensing model may not be viable for all online content. The move aligns with Getty’s broader effort to promote safe, rights-cleared visual generation in the AI era.