Colossus 1 (xAI and Anthropic contracted all capacity; Memphis, Tennessee, US) was promised training start by 31 July 2024; at the end-of-August 2026 reading the public record evidences 340 MW of IT load against 340 MW announced or estimated. The book’s verdict: kept.
From The AI Compute Race. Read the book
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Announced or estimated (IT load)340 MW
Evidenced power (IT load), end of August 2026340 MW
The book’s verdictKept
The ledger’s reading is the end of August 2026: the promises and the states as they stood then. Each row’s evidence carries its own date, printed on it.
- Promised
- Evidence read
- Today
The announcement
- Announced or estimated capacity (IT load)
- 340 MW
- Where the announcement was read
- epoch.ai
- When it was read
The promise
- Promised by
- What was promised
- training start
- Where the promise was read
- x.com
At the close of the record
- Evidenced power (IT load), end of August 2026
- 340 MW
- Where the evidence was read
- epoch.ai
- When it was read
- The book’s verdict
- Kept
The book’s note
Dated before launch by the builder’s own word: Musk on X, 9 July 2024, ‘Aiming to begin training later this month’; training began 22 July 2024 (chapter 4). Earlier note read ‘No pre-launch, checkable first-power date; the 122 days was published after the fact’, which overlooked the post; changed 25 October 2026. 340 MW is Epoch’s current estimate. The promise is the principal’s own post of 9 July 2024, a target: ‘Aiming to begin training later this month’.
Also
- Who is involved
- owner xAI (SpaceXAI)
- offtaker Anthropic
Filings that bear on it
- Space Exploration Technologies Corp., Form S-1 registration statement, filed 20 May 2026 SpaceX’s registration statement describes Colossus and Colossus II, in Memphis and Southaven, first clusters online in 122 and 91 days, an AI segment operating loss of $6.4 billion for 2025, and orbital compute from as early as 2028.
- Anthropic, PBC, Form S-1 registration statement, filed 26 October 2026 Anthropic’s registration statement reports revenue of $4.6 billion for 2025 and $16.3 billion for the first half of 2026, up to $120.5 billion of compute from a SpaceX subsidiary into 2029, and the D.C. Circuit’s 2-1 ruling against it.
- Darana Hybrid, Inc. v. CTC Property LLC and MZX Tech LLC, verified complaint filed Shelby County Chancery 3 August 2026, No. 2:26-cv-03037 in the Western District of Tennessee, with exhibits Darana Hybrid’s complaint against CTC Property and MZX Tech claims liens of about $18.6 million on Colossus and $118.2 million on the Tulane Road data center, saying CTC wrongly ended its contract on 23 June 2026.
- Space Exploration Technologies Corp., final prospectus SpaceX’s final prospectus shows Anthropic buying compute on about 325,000 NVIDIA GPUs across Colossus and Colossus II for $1.25 billion a month through May 2029, which either side may end on 90 days’ notice after three months.
- x.AI LLC, CTC Property LLC and MZX Tech LLC v. Darana Hybrid, Inc., Cuttell Motorsports, LLC and Darryl Cuttell, No. 2:26-cv-02994 xAI, CTC Property and MZX Tech sued their contractor on Colossus and the Tulane Road project, Darana Hybrid, on 4 August 2026, alleging markups as high as 880 percent and overcharges it puts at $500 million to $800 million.
- National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and Mississippi State Conference of the NAACP v. X.AI Corp. and MZX Tech LLC, No. 3:26-cv-74 The NAACP’s complaint alleges that xAI and MZX Tech began running twenty-seven gas turbines in Southaven between August and December 2025 without an air permit, to power Colossus 2, as xAI had earlier done at Colossus 1.
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration, establishment search and inspection details for Memphis, Tennessee, ZIP 38109, Tennessee OSHA state-plan inspections Tennessee OSHA’s records show X.Ai Corp. inspected in Memphis in October 2024, and Darana Hybrid at 3231 Paul R. Lowry Road in 2025, with four violations and $7,700 of penalties, and at 5420 Tulane Road, with none listed.
- Tennessee Valley Authority, Board of Directors meeting minutes, 11 February 2026 TVA’s board on 11 February 2026 approved making 150 megawatts of additional firm power available to CTC Property through MLGW, contingent on contractual, financial and operational requirements, the customer asking to start as early as February 2026.
- x.AI LLC et al v. Darana Hybrid, Inc et al, No. 2:26-cv-02994 xAI, CTC Property and MZX Tech’s suit against Darana Hybrid in federal court in western Tennessee, filed 4 August 2026, drew a motion to dismiss on 27 August, was consolidated on 4 September and amended on 17 September.
- Tennessee Valley Authority, Board of Directors, “Greater than 100 MW firm power arrangement with CTC Property LLC A proposed TVA board resolution, with a memo of 7 October 2024, would approve 150 megawatts of firm power through MLGW for CTC Property, an xAI subsidiary, at the former Electrolux site in Memphis, subject to demand response terms.
- Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division, “MLGW Utility Support to xAI,” slides for the Memphis City Council’s MLGW committee, 9 July 2024 MLGW told a Memphis council committee on 9 July 2024 that xAI’s site in the former Electrolux plant would have 50 megawatts by 1 August, the developer paying for a 150-megawatt substation recouped through a “margin allowance.”
- Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of Memphis Community Against Pollution, Young, Gifted & Green and two Sierra Club chapters, letter to Dr. Michelle Taylor, Health Officer, Shelby County Health Department, “xAI’s Turbines Likely Require Air Permits,” 26 August 2024 Lawyers for four community and environmental groups told Shelby County’s health department on 26 August 2024 that xAI had installed nearly 20 gas turbines of about 100 megawatts in southwest Memphis and apparently applied for no air permits.
- Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division, Board of Commissioners preliminary minutes, 17 July 2024 MLGW’s preliminary board minutes of 17 July 2024 record public speakers raising concerns about the load, water and air effects of xAI’s new Memphis plant, and the utility’s president noting that xAI had requested more power.
- Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division, Board of Commissioners signed minutes, 18 September 2024 At MLGW’s board on 18 September 2024, its president said xAI was receiving 50 megawatts and, he believed, using 15 to 20 gas turbines, with a 150-megawatt substation planned around the first quarter of 2025, subject to TVA’s approval.
- Southern Environmental Law Center et al., letter to the Shelby County Health Department, “xAI’s Thirty-Five Gas Turbines Are an Illegal Major Source of Air Pollution,” 9 April 2025 The Southern Environmental Law Center and others told Shelby County’s health department on 9 April 2025 that aerial images showed xAI had installed 35 gas turbines, about 421 megawatts, operating without any air permit at its Southwest Memphis facility.
Campuses near it in the ledger
- Rainier / New Carlisle shares a party
- Colossus 2 shares a party
Questions about this campus
- Is Colossus 1 energized?
- Colossus 1 (xAI and Anthropic contracted all capacity; Memphis, Tennessee, US) was promised training start by 31 July 2024; at the end-of-August 2026 reading the public record evidences 340 MW of IT load against 340 MW announced or estimated. The book’s verdict: kept.
- When was Colossus 1 promised to be energized?
- Colossus 1 was promised training start by 31 July 2024.
- Who is building Colossus 1?
- xAI (SpaceXAI) (owner), Anthropic (offtaker).
How to cite this page
Dryburgh, Lee S. “Colossus 1.” In The AI Compute Race. DRYBURGH. https://dryburgh.com/vol1/ledger/colossus-1 (accessed 2026-11-01).
BibTeX
@misc{dryburgh-colossus-1-2026,
author = {Dryburgh, Lee S.},
title = {{Colossus 1}},
howpublished = {In \emph{The AI Compute Race}, DRYBURGH},
year = {2026},
url = {https://dryburgh.com/vol1/ledger/colossus-1},
note = {Accessed 2026-11-01}
}