Author: Ejaaz, Limitless
Compiled and Organized by: BitpushNews
Recently, xAI has faced significant criticism. However, even though Musk has repeatedly proven over the decades that those who are extremely skeptical of him are gravely mistaken, I believe people are still underestimating him.
Let’s not forget that we are talking about a startup that has only been established for two years. Yet, they have built a groundbreaking data center in just 122 days (which typically takes four years) and are pushing their product to 600 million monthly active X users, possessing something that other AI labs do not have—a physical embodiment (yes, humanoid robots).
I will analyze why xAI's upcoming Grok 5 is not only set to catch up with competitors but is also expected to achieve a comprehensive leap forward.
Here are a few reasons why xAI may dominate the competition…
Musk's Energy Mega Network
By 2026, as xAI rapidly expands its data center scale, it will have a structural computational power advantage. It is estimated that its currently operational computational capacity is equivalent to about 500,000 GPUs, surpassing top competitors.
Additionally, through the efforts of the "Colossus One" and "Colossus Two" data centers, his goal is to have 900,000 GPUs online by the second quarter of this year, and he is pushing for over 1 million GPUs in the short term.
How the hell can you compete with this scale? This is not just about capital expenditure or even the hardware itself—it's about the unique way they are achieving their goals.
For example, the power grid in Tennessee and Memphis could not fully support his data centers, so he airlifted gas turbines to fill the gap. He chose to completely bypass the entire state's power grid—just to reach his goals faster.
His thinking about the entire power infrastructure is also different; he has deployed Tesla Megapack battery systems of up to 250 megawatt-hours at relevant facilities to ensure model training during spikes in power demand when the grid cannot support it.
In terms of "moving mountains and filling seas" to realize his vision, Elon’s advantages are evident; this is establishing a significant computational power advantage for xAI relative to competitors.
If the formula "more computational power = better models" still holds (which it seems to), then the rumored Grok 5 with 70 trillion parameters will be an absolute behemoth upon release (more than doubling the 30 trillion parameter model of Grok 4).
You must understand that the regulatory burden, talent acquisition, and operational logistics required to achieve this scale are unprecedented. xAI currently seems to be far ahead in the AI infrastructure expansion race, with a strategy of "execute first, ask questions later."
Unless other labs follow suit, xAI's models will continue to lead.
How can you compete?
Elon is practically playing a real-world version of Civilization, and he is ranked first in AI.
This guy is airlifting power plants from abroad to power his GPUs.
He expanded a data center scale to 300 megawatts in less than four months, which should have taken four years.
Well, for those curious about the actual details:
"Macrohard" is not just a cold joke—this term is literally painted on the roof of the Colossus 2 data center, clearly visible from satellite images. This is Musk's classic prank: using this name to mock those software giants that build from scratch using AI, referring specifically to Microsoft.
X: The Winner of the Social Media Siege
So, I believe I have clarified xAI's computational power advantage, but top models require more than just GPUs—they also need vast amounts of data.
And not just any data; more and more AI labs are realizing that real-time data is key to unlocking personalized AI that can deeply understand your desires and goals and help you achieve them.
Google's latest "personal intelligence" product perhaps most clearly indicates that this will ultimately be the direction of model development, but xAI has a unique advantage that competitors like Google do not possess…
None of its competitors have a social media platform that can deliver over 100 million posts daily, mapping the global cultural pulse in real-time. The data flood from the X platform also allows the team to deeply understand viral propagation and human behavior on a large scale—potentially better than any other dataset in the world.
Other models can only tell you what happened, while Grok will tell you what happened and how people feel about it—faster than anyone else. It’s hard to argue against X's data moat.
But it’s not just about data; X has an incredible distribution channel, with 250 million daily active users and 600 million monthly active users on the X and Grok apps. Every user can see an "Ask Grok" button next to every post on the platform.
It’s easy to foresee that xAI will integrate multiple services in the same app in the future, such as real-time market predictions, shopping, banking, and dating—all powered by Grok.
Today, most model labs are valued based on GPUs, smart benchmarks, and reputation. xAI has all of these and the opportunity to penetrate multiple different internet monopoly sectors—let’s not forget their claimed goal of becoming the "universal app."
Today, the algorithm of the X platform is powered by Grok—it analyzes every post for recommendations. Tomorrow, it will provide personal intelligence services for every user.
Clearly, Grok is far more than just a standard large language model, and its valuation should reflect that.
Physical AI Advantage
At this moment, robotics will play a huge role in driving world progress over the next five years, which should come as no surprise. The technology is finally smart enough.
From physical labor in factories to "last-mile" delivery, fast-food chains, and elite-level surgeons—robots will assist or even completely replace them.
Progress that was once limited to viral videos is now emerging from the lab, with autonomous vehicle fleets starting to appear, and astonishing humanoid robots are about to hit the market. However, after decades of development, when it comes to combining the two, people still only think of one company—Tesla.
A car with driving technology superior to humans is no longer a fantasy; the latest v14.2.2.3 update technically drives better than you. Once regulations catch up—you will see Tesla's self-driving cars taking people around. Similarly, the vision of personal humanoid robots is also becoming a reality; Elon has stated that Optimus will start shipping to the public by the end of next year.
So, what does all this have to do with xAI?
Grok needs diverse data sources to understand the world around it, and this data will come from Tesla's robots.
Driving these machines requires a multimodal brain, which in Tesla's case will be Grok.
This symbiotic relationship between the two companies gives xAI an almost unfair advantage over competitors. I believe Google is the only company that can compete at this level, thanks to Waymo, but they are still behind.
Today, Grok has already been integrated into Tesla vehicles—through the latest update, you can even ask Grok to command FSD to take you to your destination… while playing music for you… and teaching you Roman history.
The grand chess game that Musk is playing must be acknowledged. He is not just trying to build a large language model; he is trying to build the entire ecosystem on which AI relies to survive and operate.
Even as I write this, I acknowledge that it all sounds great but also ambitious… which leads to the final part of this article…
Yes, There Are Risks
Of course, risks are everywhere. Perhaps one person's energy ceiling is running five companies simultaneously, and the sixth is the tipping point… but Musk has silenced skeptics too many times, and this past credit deserves us to be a bit more patient.
After all, what he has accomplished is extraordinary.
That said, in my view, there are three main risks:
- The King of Controversy: Listen, Elon is a regular headline maker. This person is currently embroiled in a $130 billion lawsuit with OpenAI, under investigation by EU and Indian regulators, and his relationship with President Trump is often… quite complicated.
- Execution Risk: xAI consumes about $1 billion a month—that's a huge bill. Elon is just one person, managing (at least) five other companies at the same time.
- The Law of Scaling: xAI is betting everything on the formula "more computational power = better models," but if a better model training architecture is discovered, this formula could be overturned. (Andrej Karpathy has repeatedly stated that he believes large language models are not the final form.)
That’s all I have been thinking about. Ultimately, I believe that the current skepticism towards xAI's breakthrough in intelligence boundaries may overlook how it is rapidly reconstructing the rules of competition. What this company is gathering is not just algorithms and computational power, but a grand ambition to break the constraints of the physical world.
Perhaps we should all temporarily set aside our prejudices and watch this ongoing AI revolution driven by infrastructure reconstruction. Because true disruption often begins in underestimated corners.
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