Musk Sleeps in Airstream Trailer in Memphis as SpaceX Expands AI Data Center

According to QbitAI, the trailer sits at the Memphis site of Colossus, the supercomputing cluster built by xAI, which has been folded into SpaceX. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said, "He does sleep on the factory floor. Now he is in Memphis, helping build." The QbitAI report described the trailer as Musk’s latest "palace."

xAI began building Colossus in Memphis in 2024. The report said the company brought 100,000 GPUs online in 122 days and then doubled the cluster to 200,000 GPUs in 92 days. In February this year, SpaceX formally acquired xAI, combining rockets, Starlink, X, Grok and xAI’s expanding AI compute infrastructure inside one company.

SpaceX’s IPO materials described xAI as an important part of a vertically integrated company and set out a plan to extend AI computing from ground data centers into space. The report said the Colossus data center has helped SpaceX win billions of dollars in external contracts from Google and Anthropic, adding momentum to SpaceX’s IPO valuation. SpaceX’s goal remains expanding the Colossus system to 1 million GPUs within 2026. In July, Musk also announced that SpaceXAI would build a fourth data center, Minihard, in the Memphis area.

Musk has slept at work sites before. During Model 3 production difficulties, he slept at Tesla’s factory. After acquiring Twitter and entering what the report called a "code red" period, he slept at Twitter headquarters. The QbitAI report said his move into the Airstream trailer signals that AI compute has become the latest "production hell," though the arrangement offers more comfort than a factory floor.

At the All-In Summit, Musk also returned to the possibility of deeper cooperation between Tesla and SpaceX. He said the two companies are working on a wafer fab in Austin, called Terafab, with the goal of producing more than 1 terawatt of computing hardware a year. "Tesla and SpaceX are cooperating to build a wafer fab in Austin. We have ordered all the equipment and hope to make something useful by the end of next year," Musk said, according to the report. Musk has said existing global semiconductor capacity cannot support the future needs of Tesla, SpaceX and xAI.

When the host asked why Tesla and SpaceX remain separate if their cooperation is so close, Musk replied, "Good question." He did not directly answer, but he did not deny the possibility of a merger, saying, "Who can imagine what actions people will take after such close cooperation in so many areas?" The report said there was no timetable, no transaction structure and no commitment.

Financial ties between the companies have already grown. In March, Tesla completed a $2 billion investment in SpaceX, taking a stake of less than 1%. In the first half of this year, SpaceX’s purchases of Tesla Megapacks generated $405 million in revenue for Tesla, according to the report. The QbitAI report said Musk’s habit of moving assets between his companies is well established, and with AI as a broader goal, a larger combination has been placed on the capital markets’ table.

Editor's Summary

Musk is staying in an Airstream trailer in Memphis to oversee the expansion of xAI’s Colossus AI data center, now part of SpaceX. The site has helped SpaceX secure multibillion-dollar contracts and supports its IPO narrative, while Musk’s comments at the All-In Summit renewed speculation about a Tesla-SpaceX merger. The companies are already linked through chip manufacturing plans and financial investments.