Elon Musk and xAI have officially entered the AI arms race with the launch of Grok 3, now officially named Chocolate. This model, along with its Mini and Larger-Scale versions, is designed to go head-to-head with OpenAI’s GPT 4, 5 and O Models, Anthropic’s Claude, Google DeepMind’s Gemini, and DeepSeek’s latest models.
During the livestream announcement, which attracted over 2.5 million viewers, Elon Musk was joined by key xAI engineers, including Igor Babuschkin, Yuhuai (Tony) Wu, and Jimmy Ba. Their contributions to Grok 3 Chocolate’s development were instrumental in pushing xAI’s AI capabilities forward. Musk congratulated the team on their remarkable achievements in training the model at an unprecedented scale, pioneering a new approach to AI reasoning and problem-solving. Their discussion covered Chocolate’s performance against competitors, its innovative reasoning capabilities, and the future roadmap for xAI’s AI models.
More than just another AI release, Chocolate is a declaration of intent from xAI—an aggressive push into the competitive AI landscape.
The Largest AI Training Cluster Ever Built—In Record Time
The Colossus AI supercomputer that powers Chocolate is now the largest AI training cluster in the world. What makes it even more impressive is how fast xAI built it:
- Phase 1: 122 days to deploy 100,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, fully training synchronously.
- Phase 2: 92 days to double the cluster to 200,000 H100 GPUs.
- Novel training approach: Chocolate was trained using a first-of-its-kind method, making xAI’s approach unique among AI labs.
Finding a suitable facility for such an ambitious project was no easy task. xAI repurposed an old Electrolux factory in Memphis, Tennessee, after determining that no other location met their needs. Even with that, the power demands were unprecedented:
- Initially, 120 MW of power was required, sourced through temporary generators.
- xAI later worked with Tesla to develop a more permanent power solution.
And this is just the beginning. xAI has already started building a next-generation AI training cluster, which will be five times larger than Colossus and consume 1.2 GW of power, making it one of the most powerful computing infrastructures on the planet.
Grok 3 ‘Chocolate’ Models—Standard, Mini, and Large
Unlike previous iterations, Chocolate comes in multiple sizes to cater to different AI use cases.
- Chocolate (Standard Grok 3): The core model, optimized for general-purpose AI tasks.
- Chocolate Mini: A lighter, more efficient version, built for faster inference and lower compute costs.
- Chocolate Large (Future Release): A more powerful variant for heavy reasoning and enterprise-scale deployments.
This tiered approach mirrors what OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic have done with their AI models, ensuring that Chocolate can scale for both consumer and business applications.
How Chocolate Stacks Up Against the Competition
Since pretraining ended in January, xAI has tested Chocolate against leading AI models from other companies.
AIME 2025 Performance (Reasoning & Test-Time Compute)
| Model | Score |
|---|---|
| Chocolate (Grok 3) Reasoning Beta | 93 |
| Chocolate Mini (Grok 3 Mini Reasoning) | 90 |
| o3mini (high) | 87 |
| o1 | 79 |
| DeepSeek-R1 | 75 |
| Gemini-2 Flash Thinking | 54 |
Chocolate’s reasoning scores suggest that xAI has overtaken some of its competitors, particularly Google’s Gemini-2 and DeepSeek’s models.
Subject-Specific Benchmarks
Chocolate performs particularly well in science and reasoning-heavy tasks, signalling that xAI’s AI is now one of the most advanced in the industry.
Live AI Reasoning Demonstrations—Grok 3 Chocolate in Action
To showcase Chocolate’s real-time reasoning capabilities, xAI performed two major tests live:
1. Predicting Astronaut Arrival & Return from Space
Chocolate was asked to estimate when astronauts traveling from Earth to space would arrive and return.
- It walked through its reasoning process, factoring in orbital mechanics, spacecraft velocity, and mission duration.
- However, some steps were masked, as Musk noted that xAI wants to prevent competitors from copying its methodology.
2. Designing a Game That Blends Tetris & Bejeweled
- Chocolate was given the challenge of creating a game that mixes elements from Tetris and Bejeweled.
- It successfully developed a new game concept, demonstrating strong creative and logical thinking abilities.
These live challenges showcased Chocolate’s ability to perform multi-step reasoning, a key advantage for advanced AI applications.
Grok 2 Open-Sourcing—Elon’s Timeline
Elon Musk reaffirmed his commitment to open-source AI, confirming that Grok 2 will be open-sourced “in a few months” once Grok 3 Chocolate reaches full stability.
This suggests that xAI is taking a strategic approach, ensuring that Grok 3 remains competitive before making previous versions publicly available.
Grok 3 ‘Chocolate’ Rollout Plan
Chocolate will be available starting today, with a phased rollout:
- X Premium+ Users – Immediate access for paying subscribers.
- Standalone Grok App – Launching soon.
- SuperGrok Subscription ($40/month) – A premium AI tier with:
- Guaranteed access to Chocolate (Grok 3).
- Unlocked DeepSearch and Think capabilities.
- Early access to new features.
- Higher image generation limits.
At $40 per month, SuperGrok is positioned to compete with ChatGPT Plus, Claude Pro, and Gemini Advanced.
xAI’s Next Steps—What Comes After Chocolate?
With Chocolate, xAI is now a major AI player. But what’s next?
- Expanding Compute Infrastructure – The 1.2 GW supercluster will push AI training capabilities further.
- Larger Model Variants – Chocolate’s Mini and Large versions suggest a roadmap for even more powerful future AI models.
- Enhancing AI Reasoning – Real-time reasoning and creativity tests show that Chocolate is already competing at the highest level.
The Challenges Ahead
- Ensuring reliability at scale with millions of users.
- Smoothly rolling out API access to developers.
- Directly competing with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, which have years of lead time.
Musk and xAI have moved at lightning speed to develop Chocolate, but now the real competition begins. Will it live up to expectations? The next few months will tell.
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