Elon’s going all-in on AI, with his xAI project now seeking to compete with Meta, OpenAI, Google and others, by providing similar generative AI features and tools, hosted within both X itself and the separate Grok AI app.
The next big element incoming is xAI’s new image and video generation option, which it’s calling “Imagine.”
And according to a new splash screen in the Grok app, that’s coming very soon.
As you can see in this screenshot (posted by Jonah Manzano), xAI is now informing Grok users that they can join the waitlist for “the fastest image and video generation experience.”
I mean, I’m not sure that people really want to fastest tool on this front necessarily, but preferably the best tool for translating their text prompts into actual images and video.
Though Elon’s confident on that front as well, posting a 6-second video example from xAI’s current generation model:
Elon’s so confident that people will like his new “Imagine” option, that he’s even claimed that X will effectively bring back Vine in AI form via a coming influx of AI-generated clips.
Which could be interesting, I guess, but it’s not really the return of Vine so much as an introduction of another text-to-video AI tool.
Which, functionally, won’t be new, given that Google Veo offers the same, while OpenAI, Meta and TikTok are all also developing their own text-to-video models.
But still, Elon’s always keen to proclaim his version as the best, and the leader of the pack. And right now at least, he could have some claim to that, given the amount of processing power that xAI has seemingly been able to activate via its Colossus data center.
According to Musk, xAI is now operating 230k Nvidia H100 GPUs at its various facilities, powering the latest Grok models. Nvidia’s chips have become a key component for AI development, and the more you have, the better the performance of your AI systems.
For comparison, Meta reportedly has around 350,000 Nvidia H100 chips, though not all are available for Meta AI processing, while OpenAI has around 200k in operation.
So right now at least, xAI could indeed have the most powerful AI models in operation, though it seems unlikely that this will remain the case, given that Meta has more capacity, and is developing its own AI chips to expand its systems even further.
Though Musk’s other business, Tesla, has also signed a new deal with Samsung to develop custom chips, which could eventually see Musk working towards his own variation of the same.
Though even then, it still seems like xAI is going to struggle to compete in the wider market, considering the early mover advantages gained by OpenAI, and the near limitless capacity of Meta.
I had assumed that Musk’s ties with the U.S. government, through his friendship with President Trump, would be the key play on this front, with xAI able to build custom AI systems that align with the requirements of U.S. government customers. But then Musk turned on Trump, and Trump has since threatened to cut all government contracts with Musk’s companies.
So that, seemingly, has burned that bridge. But then again, xAI did ink a $200 million contract with the Pentagon just two weeks ago, which will see the company provide AI tools to the Defense Department.
So maybe all the Elon vs Trump stuff is being overblown, and Musk will still be able to capitalize on his involvement with the government in order to benefit his companies.
Without that, however, I don’t see why companies would be lining up to do business with xAI, given its various controversies around misinformation, and alignment with Elon’s own opinions.
Yet, Elon clearly sees this as a key opportunity, and he’s now pushing hard to make xAI into a bigger project, and capitalize on the broader AI hype.
If that works out, then Elon could be on another big money winner, which will keep the cash flowing into X, Tesla robotics, and more, as he pushes to lead the next tech stage.
But as with all of Musk’s projects, a lot has to go right for this to work out.
The approach seems to be working for him so far, but it always feels like it’s barely being held together by Elon’s irrational confidence.
