News | May 8, 2026
Inside Memphis’ fight against xAI
SELC and our community partners are pushing back on Elon Musk’s polluting tech facilities that are endangering communities in Greater Memphis.
The xAI data center operation in the greater Memphis area has been a years-long fight for accountability, transparency, and clean air. (Steve Jones)
The news spread fast when xAI — an artificial intelligence company owned by Elon Musk — announced that it would build the “world’s largest supercomputer” in Memphis in June 2024.
While local officials had spent months in closed‑door negotiations with the company, they offered few details to the public about what the project meant to train the chatbot Grok would entail, including important questions about how the facility would be powered and regulated.
The lack of transparency left locals and environmental advocates scrambling for answers.
Here come the turbines
Community members were the first to notice the rows of gas turbines appearing on site without any permits.
“While local officials were downplaying the scale of operations, SELC provided the visual and technical evidence that forced public accountability,” says Senior Attorney Ben Grillot.
Over the course of the next two years, SELC and our community partners would:
- Use aerial imaging to uncover the growing number of polluting turbines,
- Challenge the Shelby County Health Department’s justifications for allowing unpermitted operations, and
- Repeatedly press regulators to enforce the Clean Air Act.
The following timeline gives more insight into the years-long fight for accountability, transparency, and clean air in Memphis and North Mississippi.
xAI timeline
June 5, 2024
- The Chamber of Commerce holds a press conference to announce that xAI will be building the “world’s largest supercomputer” in Memphis with little information about the data center’s operations. Shortly after the announcement, xAI begins installing methane gas turbines at the data center, which will eventually be called Colossus 1.
August 1, 2024
- After reports of methane gas turbines at the xAI site from community members, SELC sends a public records request to the Shelby County Health Department asking for any permits for the site. The agency says there are no results for the request, indicating there are no permits for the turbines.
August 26, 2024
- SELC, on behalf of Memphis Community Against Pollution, Young Gifted & Green, and the Sierra Club, write a letter to the Shelby County Health Department about xAI’s use of unpermitted methane gas turbines and urging the agency to investigate and take appropriate actions.
January 2025
- xAI applies for an air permit for 15 methane gas turbines. The permit would allow them to run 24/7 for the foreseeable future.
March 7, 2025
- The Greater Memphis Chamber announces that xAI will expand its operations and build a second data center at the Tulane Road location in Whitehaven, a historic neighborhood in southwest Memphis. At the time, there are no details on how the new facility, which will eventually become the Colossus 2 data center, will be powered.
April 9, 2025
- SELC partners with Southwings to get aerial images of the Colossus 1 facility. The new photos show a whopping 35 turbines at the Colossus 1 facility—more than double than previously disclosed. Days later, Memphis Mayor Paul Young, speaking for xAI, falsely claims that just 15 or the 35 turbines are running.
April 24, 2025
- In response to Memphis Mayor Paul Young’s claims about the number of turbines operating at xAI’s Colossus 1 data center, SELC partners with Southwings again to get thermal images of the site. The images showed more than 30 of the turbines at Colossus 1 being operated, contradicting the mayor’s claims.
April 25, 2025
- The Shelby County Health Department holds a public comment meeting for xAI’s air permit. The hearing is attended by hundreds of community members, and there is unanimous opposition to the permit from commenters.
June 17, 2025
- SELC, on behalf of the NAACP, sends a 60-day notice of intent to sue to xAI over its continued use of unpermitted gas turbines. After the notice letter, xAI removes all unpermitted turbines from the site.
July 2, 2025
- The Shelby County Health Department approves xAI’s permit for 15 gas turbines at its initial site. The permit turns a blind eye to the company’s operation of unpermitted turbines and has significant flaws. In the permit decision, SCHD creates a policy where any company can install and operate without any permits, so long as the turbines are “temporary.”
July 16, 2025
- SELC, on behalf of the NAACP and Young, Gifted & Green, appeals SCHD’s decisions around gas turbines and xAI’s permit. The same day, MZX Tech, an affiliate of xAI, purchases the site of a former Duke Power Plant in Southaven, Mississippi — just on the other side of the state line from Colossus 2.
August 19, 2025
- After months of advocacy from local community groups, the Memphis City Council approves an ordinance to allocate 25 percent of tax revenue generated from xAI for communities closest to the facilities.
August 13, 2025
- An article from TIME Magazine cites a study that used data from NASA to find that nitrogen dioxide — a smog-forming pollutant — jumped by 3% in the post-xAI period, with peak episodes observed in late 2024.
November 2025
- Neighbors in Southaven, Mississippi, begin complaining about noise from turbines at xAI’s Southaven site. This is the first public indication that unpermitted turbines are operating at that location in order to power the Colossus 2 data center.
December 15, 2025
- The Memphis and Shelby County Air Pollution Control Board holds a seven-hour long hearing to hear motions arguments in SELC’s appeal of xAI’s permit and SCHD’s turbine decisions. Several board members express significant concerns about SCHD’s decisions, but the board votes to dismiss the appeals based on mootness.
January 9, 2026
- The EPA revises its New Source Performance Standard, and in the revision, states that turbines—even portable or temporary turbines—require permits. The statements confirm what community groups had been saying for more than a year, and refutes arguments from the Shelby County Health Department, Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce, and Mayor Paul Young that there is a “loophole” allowing the turbines to run without permits.
January 14, 2026
- xAI applies for an air permit that would allow the company to operate a staggering 41 turbines at its Southaven site, effectively building a personal power plant.
February 13, 2026
- The NAACP, represented by SELC and Earthjustice, sends a 60-day notice of intent to sue to xAI over the tech company’s use of turbines at its Southaven Power Plant.
February 16, 2026
- SELC releases a study that shows that xAI plans to install and operate more than 40 turbines at its Southaven location, which would have a significant impact on air quality and impose tens of millions of dollars in health damages. The study, conducted by Harvard-trained researchers at Empower Analytics, looked at fine particulate matter pollution that would be pumped from the site.
February 17, 2026
- Hundreds of concerned residents pack an MDEQ hearing for xAI’s permit application. During the three-hour long hearing, nobody spoke in favor of xAI’s operations.
March 2026
- Instead of taking action to correct the unlawful problems pointed out in the notice of intent to sue letter, xAI does the opposite: The company adds six more massive turbines to its power plant.
March 10, 2026
- MDEQ approves xAI’s air permit, allowing the company to install and operate 41 turbines at its Southaven power plant. The approval came just three weeks after the contentious public hearing — an absurdly short timeline for an approval of an air permit like this one.
April 9, 2026
- SELC, on behalf of the NAACP, Young Gifted & Green, and the Safe and Sound Coalition, files an appeal challenging MDEQ’s decision to issue an air permit to xAI. The appeal argues that the permit relies on faulty data that minimizes or ignores pollution impacts from xAI’s Southaven power plant and other nearby facilities.
April 14, 2026
- The NAACP, represented by SELC and Earthjustice, sues xAI and its subsidiary, MZX Tech, under the Clean Air Act. The lawsuit follows through on the previous notice of intent to sue.
May 6, 2026
- The NAACP, represented by SELC and Earthjustice, moves for a preliminary injunction in the Clean Air Act case, asking the court to force xAI to shut down its polluting gas turbines.
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