KEY TAKEWAYS

• Elon Musk announced that Dell Technologies and Super Micro Computer will be providing hardware for his artificial intelligence (AI) project.
• Musk said the two companies would be involved in assembling the supercomputer that his startup, xAI, is building.
• Dell CEO Michael Dell also noted that Dell was working with Nvidia to create a factory to power xAI’s chatbot, Grok.

Shares of Dell Technologies (DELL) and Super Micro Computer (SMCI), also known as Supermicro, rose in intraday trading Thursday after Elon Musk announced that the two tech firms would be developing hardware for his xAI artificial intelligence (AI) startup.

Musk posted on X Wednesday that “Dell is assembling half of the racks that are going into the supercomputer that xAI is building.” He also mentioned Supermicro’s involvement.

Earlier Wednesday, Dell Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Michael Dell had posted on X that his company was creating an AI factory with Nvidia (NVDA) to power xAI’s Grok chatbot. 

Musk Launched Grok in Challenge to ChatGPT

Musk launched Grok in November as a challenge to OpenAI’s chatbot, ChatGPT. He also sued the Microsoft-backed firm and CEO Sam Altman in March, claiming they violated OpenAI’s founding mission “to ensure that artificial general intelligence benefits all of humanity,” although he dropped the lawsuit last week.

As of 11:38 a.m. ET Thursday, shares of Dell were up 2.4% to $152.69, Super Micro Computer gained 7.5% to $989.00, and Nvidia rose 2.4% to $138.80 after the AI chipmaker Tuesday overtook Microsoft (MSFT) to become the world’s most valuable company.