Elon Musk announced a large new data center project for xAI in Saudi Arabia as the kingdom’s crown prince continued his visit to the United States. The 500-megawatt facility will be developed with HUMAIN AI, a company backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, and will rely on Nvidia’s advanced computing chips. The project significantly exceeds the scale of xAI’s existing Colossus 1 data center in Memphis, which operates at around 300 megawatts.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang separately announced a 100-megawatt data center project for Amazon Web Services, noting that it forms part of a broader initiative with ambitions reaching a gigawatt. Both announcements followed the signing of a U.S.–Saudi AI Memorandum of Understanding that aims to expand access to American AI systems while protecting U.S. technology.
Speaking alongside Saudi officials and Huang, Musk outlined a future shaped by robotics and orbital data centers. He said humanoid robots could become the largest commercial product category and suggested that solar-powered satellites may eventually offer the lowest-cost AI computing. He also clarified an initial misstatement about the project’s scale, noting that a 500-gigawatt buildout would be financially unrealistic.
The developments also tie into broader discussions of xAI funding and Musk’s strategic moves in AI, as detailed in coverage of his recent funding controversies.
