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Colossus: The race to build the world’s most powerful machine in Memphis

By , Daily Memphian Updated: April 02, 2025 9:52 AM CT | Published: April 02, 2025 4:00 AM CT

Under a warm late-February sun, contractors felled row after row of thin pines along the Tennessee-Mississippi border.

The public did not yet know what the empty warehouse sitting behind those pines was about to become. The proximity of a natural gas plant sitting just a few hundred yards away offered a clue. For months, Elon Musk’s xAI had zeroed in on these million square feet at 5420 Tulane Road for the next phase of its buildout in Memphis.

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Samuel Hardiman

Samuel Hardiman

Samuel Hardiman is an enterprise and investigative reporter who focuses on local government and politics. He began his journalism career at the Tulsa World in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he covered business and, later, K-12 education. Hardiman came to Memphis in 2018 to join the Memphis Business Journal, covering government and economic development. He then served as the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s city hall reporter and later joined The Daily Memphian in 2023. His current work focuses on Elon Musk’s xAI, regional energy needs and how Memphis and Shelby County government spend taxpayer dollars.


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