Dell's deal with Grok's mothership set to be confirmed according to business reports
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission.
Dell is close to securing a $5 billion AI server deal with Elon Musk's xAI
The servers, featuring Nvidia GB200 chips, may support xAI's supercomputer
Analysts predict Dell's AI server revenue could hit $14 billion by 2026
We recently reported HPE had beaten Supermicro and Dell Technologies to win a $1 billion contract to supply servers optimized for AI work to Elon Musk's X, potentially to power Grok, the social network's AI chatbot.
At the end of 2024, X announced it was rolling out Grok-2 to all users for free, and losing out to HPE would have been a big blow to Dell, which, along with Supermicro, did bid to supply the equipment but was ultimately unsuccessful.
However, if a new report from Bloomberg is accurate, the iconic computer maker could be on the verge of winning an even bigger contract from one of Musk's other ventures, xAI.
The report says that Dell is close to finalizing a deal worth over $5 billion to supply AI-focused servers equipped with Nvidia GB200 chips. Some aspects are still being worked out, sources familiar with the discussions told the news site, but if all goes ahead – and it surely will - the servers are set to be delivered later in 2025.
Elon Musk previously said, 'The table stakes for being competitive in AI are at least several billion dollars per year at this point,' and he's obviously paying to play.
Quite what the servers are for isn't reported, but it's very likely that most, if not all of them, will be for xAI's supercomputer project, known as "Colossus," which is being built in Memphis using a mix of Dell and Supermicro servers. By all accounts, Dell has been very keen to supply the rest of the servers to finish the job.
This deal with xAI will 'firmly establish the company as a leading AI-server provider and boost sales, though the impact on profitability is less clear,' Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Woo Jin Ho noted.
'Analysts expect Dell will have shipped more than $10 billion of AI servers in the fiscal year ending last month and project that value will jump to $14 billion in the fiscal year ending in January 2026,' Bloomberg added, noting Dell is set to to report its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on February 27.
Elon Musk raises $6 billion for xAI's Memphis data center
xAI cluster is now the most powerful AI training system in the world
HPE may have beaten Supermicro and Dell to win a $1bn AI contract
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
33 minutes ago
- Yahoo
China's AI lab unveils RoboBrain 2.0 model to accelerate humanoid robot development
In a move that will further assert China's bid to scale robotics industry, the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence (BAAI)—a not for profit research laboratory—unveiled last week a series of new open-source artificial intelligence (AI) models, dubbed RoboBrain 2.0, that will function as the 'brain' of robots. According to BAAI head Wang Zhongyuan, the use of powerful AI models in China's booming robotics market could accelerate the development and adoption of humanoids, as the sector works to overcome key challenges such as limited model capabilities and a lack of high-quality training data. Wang further explained that BAAI is actively seeking collaboration across the embodied intelligence industry, emphasizing the importance of joint efforts to accelerate progress. He noted that the institute is working with more than 20 leading companies in the sector and is looking to expand its network of partners to drive continued growth. Unveiled as part of China's broader push to advance intelligent machines, RoboBrain 2.0 was described by Wang as the world's most powerful open-source AI model designed to enhance a wide range of robots, including humanoids. Its debut positions BAAI as a potential key player in the evolving sector, the South China Morning Post reported. Furthermore, RoboBrain 2.0 introduces major improvements in spatial intelligence and task planning, delivering a 17% boost in speed and a 74% increase in accuracy compared to the previous version launched just three months earlier. With enhanced spatial intelligence, robots can now perceive distances from surrounding objects more precisely, while advanced task planning enables them to autonomously deconstruct complex activities into manageable steps, significantly improving overall performance. The RoboBrain model is part of the Wujie series, which also includes RoboOS 2.0—a cloud platform for deploying robotics AI models—and Emu3, a multimodal system capable of interpreting and generating text, images, and video. BAAI is one of China's early developers of open-source large language models, the technology behind generative AI chatbots. Several former employees have used their experience at BAAI to start their own AI companies, helping to grow the AI startup community in China. China's push to lead in robotics AI involves multiple players, with BAAI joined by the Beijing Humanoid Robot Innovation Centre, which earlier this year launched Hui Si Kai Wu—a general-purpose embodied AI platform. The center is also known for developing the Tien Kung humanoid robot, which made headlines after completing a half-marathon in Beijing in April. The Chinese institution aims to have its platform become the "Android of humanoid robots," serving as a standard operating system much like Google's Android does in the smartphone industry. Moreover, this year's edition of the BAAI Conference attracted over 100 AI researchers from around the world and more than 200 industry experts, including leaders from major Chinese tech companies such as Baidu, Huawei Technologies, and Tencent Holdings. Additionally, the Chinese academy also announced a strategic partnership with the Hong Kong Investment Corporation to collaborate on talent development, technology advancement, and capital investment aimed at fostering innovation and entrepreneurship in the country's AI sector.
Yahoo
42 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Mars by 2026? The 4 key takeaways from Elon Musk's Starship update
SpaceX's billionaire founder Elon Musk says that despite Starship setbacks, the space company hasn't taken its eyes off the ball — and that ball is big, red, and roughly 140 million miles away. In a 42-minute video posted to X on Thursday evening, Musk laid out a plan to launch the mammoth spacecraft to Mars for the first time as early as next year. His ultimate vision has been to use a fleet of Starships to send 1 million humans to Mars by 2050. To be clear, he doesn't just want to visit the planet; he wants to establish a permanent, independent city there. The new timeline is hard to fathom, especially for those who watched another Starship prototype explode this week. Though the ship reached space during the test, it failed to achieve many of its goals. Musk has earned a reputation for wildly underestimating schedules — he once aimed to send an uncrewed ship to Mars by 2018 — but that didn't stop him from presenting yet another ambitious timeline. "If we have two planets, we keep going," he said. "We can be out there among the stars, making science fiction no longer fiction." Here are the key takeaways from Musk's latest Mars update: SEE ALSO: Listen to the eerie sounds of Mars recorded by a NASA rover Elon Musk gave a presentation called "The Road to Making Life Multiplanetary." Credit: SpaceX / X screenshot Musk is now targeting late 2026 for the first uncrewed Starship flight to Mars, taking advantage of an orbital alignment that would shorten the journey between planets. The ship would arrive seven to nine months later in 2027. Musk considers the odds of launching in that upcoming window to be about 50-50. If SpaceX misses it, the next opportunity wouldn't come for another two years. In order to head to Mars that soon, SpaceX first has to master how to refuel a Starship in low-Earth orbit, after it has already blasted off the planet — something that, by the way, has never been done before. Though the first flight won't carry people, SpaceX still intends to put some butts in seats. The "crew" will consist of humanoid Optimus robots, built by Musk's electric car company, Tesla. During his talk, Musk presented some renderings of the sci-fi robots, including one meant as an homage to the famous Lunch atop a Skyscraper photo, with Optimuses (Optimi?) sitting together on a steel beam. "That would be an epic picture to see Optimus walking around on the surface of Mars," he said. NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft looked at Arcadia, a region with ice, in 2001. Credit: NASA / JPL / Arizona State University SpaceX is looking at several potential areas on Mars where Starship could land, but the lead candidate so far is a region known as Arcadia, which also happens to be the name of one of Musk's children. It's one of the few regions where lots of shallow ice exists relatively near the Martian equator, according to NASA. SpaceX will be prioritizing a location that isn't close to the poles, has ice as a source for water, and isn't too mountainous for the rockets, Musk said. With each Mars alignment launch window, SpaceX wants to increase its cadence of flights. To do that, they'll need a lot more rockets and ships. Right now the SpaceX plant in Starbase, Texas — which residents just voted to make a city — can make a new Starship every two to three weeks, Musk said. The company will build two so-called "Giga Bay" facilities — one in Texas and another in Florida — to ramp that up to several per day. He envisions 1,000 to 2,000 ships heading to the Red Planet every couple of years, with the ability to catch and reuse boosters within hours. The goal is to send enough people, infrastructure, and supplies so that if for some reason cargo shipments from Earth stop coming, the Martian city won't die. "My guess is that's about a million tons, but it might be 10 million tons. I hope it's not 100 million tons," he said. "That'd be a lot."
CNBC
an hour ago
- CNBC
CCTV Script 06/06/25
The war of words between Elon Musk and Donald Trump, which seemed to escalate almost hourly, has already cost real money in the capital markets. Overnight, Musk's personal net worth reportedly fell by approximately $34 billion. By aligning the timing of their social media exchanges with Tesla's stock movements, a clear pattern emerges: as the feud grew more intense, with language becoming increasingly blunt and emotional, Tesla's share price continued to slide. Many analysts believe that Tesla's stock is likely to remain volatile. To assess its future trajectory, we can start with the trigger of this conflict: a recently passed House spending bill. One provision would eliminate tax credits for electric vehicles—directly impacting Tesla. JPMorgan analysts estimate that the new legislation could cut Tesla's annual profits by around $1.2 billion. However, some market observers note that both Musk and others in the industry had long anticipated that the Trump administration would eventually scrap EV subsidies. This expectation has been priced in—it was only a matter of timing. But of even greater consequence is the second layer of impact: the broader regulatory posture of the White House toward Musk, particularly in the autonomous driving space. Timing is critical. Next week, Tesla is expected to debut its long-awaited Robotaxi service in Austin, Texas. Progress in self-driving technology has been a key reason many investors remain bullish on Tesla. But the breakdown in Musk's relationship with Trump could undermine those expectations. "there's a view that the battle here going on between musk and Trump, that this is going to continue to sort of, you know, increase, and with that, ultimately does is that autonomous and the regulatory vision does Trump now, now not start to play nice in the sandbox with musk.""Elon Musk, as brilliant as he can be, can also be mercurial and impetuous. CUT TO from a trading perspective, I think the stock could easily trade down into the 250s 260s until you get some support." Beyond the personal feud, the spotlight is also shifting to the broader relationship between Silicon Valley—the U.S. tech hub—and Washington, D.C.—the political center. As Musk and Trump move from allies to adversaries, their split is drawing attention to the evolving dynamic between big tech and federal power. Analysts told CNBC that during Trump's first term, major tech firms often found themselves in the administration's crosshairs. Companies like Meta, Google, and to some extent Apple were all named in antitrust inquiries. Now, the rift between Musk and Trump may open new doors for tech leaders who have had tense relations with Musk. For instance, Jeff Bezos—who also leads a space company—has in recent months made efforts to court Trump more closely, reportedly taking cues from Musk's political playbook. This shift may also present an opportunity for Sam Altman, CEO of AI startup OpenAI. "If you're a startup that's trying to make big names or big headlines with investments for the US, that's probably a good place to be." Still, some analysts caution that this overnight drama may not deserve too much attention. A defining feature of the Trump-era policymaking process has always been its volatility—things can shift dramatically within just a few hours. What ultimately matters is returning to the fundamentals and taking a long-term view of where the industry—and the economy—are heading.
