Elon Musk insists that his artificial intelligence venture xAI remains a serious competitor, pushing back against mounting doubts after revelations that the supercomputing facilities built to power his own AI models are being rented out to a rival. It has also landed a Pentagon contract worth up to $200 million alongside rivals including Google and OpenAI. Built quickly, the Colossus facilities in Memphis have been a source of controversy, after xAI installed dozens of natural gas turbines to power the site -- drawing protests from civil rights groups who said it worsened air pollution in a predominantly Black neighborhood.