Relentless WTF is happening at xAI | Sulaiman Ghori
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Jan 15, 2026 
Sulaiman Ghori, an engineer at xAI with a knack for rapid hardware and software innovation, dives into the fast-paced culture of his workplace. He reveals how xAI built its Colossus data center in just 122 days and the strategies Elon Musk employs to tackle infrastructure challenges. Sulaiman discusses the importance of being metric-driven and challenging conventional requirements. He also shares insights on his upbringing as a tinkerer, including his work on a liquid-fuel rocket engine, highlighting a mindset of urgency and adaptability.
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Remove Artificial Blockers For Speed
- XAI removes artificial blockers and pushes to root physical and financial constraints to accelerate work.
- Knocking out software overhead often yields 2–8x speedups on recent systems.
Build Capacity To Unlock Faster Iteration
- Massive, fast data-center build enabled long-term planning and higher experiment rates.
- That capacity lets teams assume resources and iterate models and products far faster.
Use Existing Hardware At Scale
- Tesla car computers are capital-efficient compute that could be leased to scale deployments.
- Leveraging parked Tesla hardware could let XAI rapidly deploy millions of digital workers.