--- title: "Elon Musk Buys Ten Thousand GPUs for Secretive AI Project" description: "Twitter CEO Elon Musk has bought around 10,000 graphics cards and is hiring AI experts to build a ChatGPT competitor within Twitter, Insider reports." date: "2023-04-12" modified: "2023-04-12" authors: - name: "Victor Tangermann" job_title: "Senior Editor" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-gpus-ai" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "OpenAI" - "the digest" - "twitter" --- # Elon Musk Buys Ten Thousand GPUs for Secretive AI Project ![Twitter CEO Elon Musk has bought around 10,000 graphics cards and is hiring AI experts to build a ChatGPT competitor within Twitter, Insider reports.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## 10,000 GPUs Twitter CEO Elon Musk has bought around 10,000 graphics cards and is hiring AI experts to build a ChatGPT competitor within Twitter, [*Insider* reports](). That's despite the billionaire CEO repeatedly [voicing concerns]() over AI chatbots like ChatGPT, and even [signing an open letter]() calling for a six-month moratorium on developing AIs more advanced than OpenAI's GPT-4. Training a large language model like OpenAI's highly popular AI chatbot takes a lot of computational power, which means Musk had to dig deep in his sizeable pockets — tens of millions of dollars, according to *Insider* — to finance the project. ## Big Gamble It's a big gamble considering that Twitter's finances are already in a rough state. Last month, Musk [warned workers]() in an email that the site was in a precarious financial position, valuing it at less than half of what he bought it for last year. Needless to say, buying a warehouse full of expensive AI hardware is likely to only add to Twitter's growing mountain of debt, at least in the short term. Earlier this year, Twitter also [hired several AI researchers]() and engineers from DeepMind, a UK-based AI research lab and Alphabet subsidiary. ## Catching Up Whether Twitter will see success in developing its own AI tool remains to be seen. According to *Insider*, such a tool could enhance the company's search functionality or build out its advertising business. As always, Musk's intentions are as murky as ever. Is the billionaire trying to one-up OpenAI, a company he co-founded, but has had a [very shaky relationship]() with over the last couple of years? The stakes are high, even for Musk. Going on a major shopping spree while the online platform is [in a rough state]() is a bold move that could end up backfiring on him. Besides, Twitter has a lot of catching up to do, considering the AI race is already well underway. **More on Twitter:** *[Twitter Accidentally Made Users' Secret Nudes Public]()* ## Author I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()