Nicholas Cocobris | Null Photo | Getty Images
Elon Musk’s xAI, which merged with SpaceX last week, is facing increasing pressure from environmental and civil rights groups over contamination concerns, this time at its facility in South Haven, Mississippi.
On Friday, the Southern Environmental Law Center and Earthjustice, on behalf of the NAACP, sent a notice of intent to sue xAI and its subsidiary, MZ Tech LLC, alleging that the company’s use of dozens of natural gas-burning turbines requires federal permits, violates the Clean Air Act, and harms nearby communities.
Pollution from the turbines that xAI also uses at its Colossus 1 and Colossus 2 data centers in Memphis, Tennessee, has been a major source of local controversy for more than a year.
Plans to build a third data center in Southaven, about 32 miles from Memphis, were announced earlier this year, and Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves said he expected the project to create “hundreds of permanent jobs throughout DeSoto County.”
Launched by Musk in 2023, xAI is a collaboration between OpenAI, Anthropic, and google In the rapidly growing generative AI market. On February 2, Musk said his rocket maker and defense contractor SpaceX would acquire xAI, valuing the combined company at $1.25 trillion.
Musk is looking to Memphis and the surrounding area as the foundation for his AI ambitions, and is ignoring environmental rules to develop as quickly as possible. Musk’s social network X (formerly Twitter) is also owned by xAI, which created the Grok AI chatbot and image generator.
XAI is currently the subject of numerous government investigations in Europe, Asia, and the United States after Grok made it easy for users to create and share deepfake pornography containing explicit images depicting child sexual abuse.
Last year, residents of the majority-black community of Boxtown in south Memphis testified at a public hearing about the health effects of xAI’s use of natural gas turbines and the odor in the air and worsening smog. A study by scientists at the University of Tennessee also found that the use of xAI turbines is adding to the region’s air pollution woes.
Environmental advocacy groups, including the NAACP, previously said they would sue to stop xAI from using its turbines in Memphis without permission. However, no lawsuit was filed because the Shelby County Health Department allowed xAI to treat the turbine as a temporary non-road engine and issued a permit for its use.
At the federal level, the EPA recently clarified a gray area in the law, stating that these turbines cannot be classified as temporary non-road engines. Despite this, xAI continues to use its turbines across state lines without obtaining federal permits.
XAI did not respond to requests for comment.
Noise pollution from the turbines is also causing local anxiety. Jason Haley, a Southaven resident, told CNBC that the turbines emit a headache-inducing noise 24 hours a day that can be heard inside his home.
Haley is part of a group called Safe and Sound, which documents decibel levels and is calling on local authorities to stop xAI from emitting loud noises from its turbines, especially at night.
Mississippi officials have a public hearing scheduled for Tuesday for area residents who want to voice concerns about xAI’s expansion plans in the region. The hearing will focus on whether the state should give xAI permission to install and operate 41 permanent turbines at the South Haven facility, Mississippi Today previously reported.
Similar community dynamics are playing out across the U.S. as tech giants rush to build massive data centers, potentially straining local energy and water supplies and driving up prices.
In November, microsoft Ended efforts to build a data center in Wisconsin due to vocal community opposition. Amazon It also withdrew from a data center project in Arizona after community outcry.
Regarding Musk’s South Haven project, SELC senior attorney Patrick Anderson said xAI “must follow the law like any other company.”
“And ignoring the Clean Air Act’s bedrock protections against unauthorized emissions puts the public’s health and welfare at risk,” Anderson said in an email. “That’s why we’re going to hold xAI accountable here.”
The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality did not respond to requests for comment.
The environmental group’s notice to sue xAI can be read here:
