Elon Musk's xAI Faces Environmental Scrutiny Over Unauthorized Gas Turbines in Memphis

Musk's xAI increased Tennessee gas turbines without permits, community groups say

April 9 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's xAI has nearly doubled gas turbines at its Tennessee data center, exceeding previously known figures and surpassing the number for which the company has submitted permits, according to a letter from community groups to the county's health department. The Southern Environmental Law Center and local groups have called on the health department to cease operating all the turbines till the company complies with the critical Clean Air Act and local protections. Reuters could not independently verify the allegations, and the Environmental Protection Agency, Shelby County Health Department and xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment. "The dozens of turbines operating outside the datacenter likely make xAI the largest industrial source of the smog-forming pollutant NOx in Memphis," Southern Environmental Law Center said in a statement. The data center's expanded turbine operations and resulting emissions require xAI to obtain a "major source permit", yet the company operates the equipment without any regulatory authorization, the group added. The massive surge in power consumption of AI-supporting data centers in the United States is driving an increase in the usage of fossil fuels as clean-energy deployments struggle to keep up. Billionaire Musk had dubbed the Tennessee data center, which powers the firm's Grok chatbot, as "the most powerful AI training cluster in the world" last year. The environmental law group said xAI's 35 gas turbines have a capacity of 422 MW, comparable to the Tennessee Valley Authority's Brownsville gas power plant, which has a capacity of 425 MW. It had said in August that xAI's Memphis data center had installed nearly 20 gas turbines with a combined capacity of about 100 MW. The Greater Memphis Chamber said in December that xAI planned to expand its Memphis supercomputer to house at least one million graphics processing units. In late March, the AI firm acquired Musk-owned X in a deal that values the social media platform at $33 billion. Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab Suggested Topics:Climate & EnergyRegulatory OversightGovernanceGrid & InfrastructureGas

Elon Musk's xAI is polluting air in Memphis, using more gas turbines than permitted, advocacy group says

Elon Musk announced his new company xAI which he says has the goal to understand the true nature of the universe. Elon Musk's xAI, the artificial intelligence startup trying to take on OpenAI, is facing scrutiny in Memphis, Tennessee, for alleged environmental violations at its data center. In a letter sent to the Shelby County Health Department on April 9, the Southern Environment Law Center said aerial imagery and other data showed that xAI has installed "a whopping 35 gas turbines," at its facility, sometimes referred to as the Colossus. The company only applied for permits for 15 turbines to power the data center temporarily, the letter said. Musk founded xAI in 2023 and has made the company the centerpiece of his AI ambitions as he engages in a high-profile business and legal battle with OpenAI, which he co-founded in 2015 as a nonprofit research lab. Its flagship Grok chatbot is designed to take on ChatGPT. In late March, Musk announced that xAI had acquired his social network X, formerly known as Twitter, in an all-stock transaction that valued xAI at $80 billion. Last year, the xAI team began training its AI models at the Memphis data center using 100,000 Nvidia H100 processors. The long-term plan for xAI is to use power from the local utility, Memphis Light, Gas and Water, and the Tennessee Valley Authority, according to its permit applications. However, the turbines have an estimated power-generating capacity of 421 megawatts, which compares to the capacity of an entire TVA power plant, the SELC said. The company hasn't said when it would plan to shut off the turbines and switch power sources. SELC said in its letter that xAI is operating the higher number of turbines "unlawfully without any air permit" and that the local community had already been "profoundly overburdened with industrial pollution." "Worse yet, manufacturer-supplied emissions data for these turbines shows that xAI emits between 1,200 and 2,000 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx) per year, making the facility likely the largest industrial emitter of NOx in Memphis," the letter said. Exposure to high levels of nitrogen oxides, which are precursors to ozone formation, have been associated with higher risk of death from respiratory disease. Musk, who's also CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, is spending much of his time these days in Washington, D.C., as a central figure in President Donald Trump's second administration. Musk's primary role is overseeing an expansive effort to slash government spending and eliminate regulations, including those that potentially inhibit his businesses. SpaceX and Tesla have a history of running afoul of federal and state environmental regulations. The SELC said it's likely that xAI has "violated the Clean Air Act and Shelby County's rigorous preconstruction permitting requirements for major sources of air pollution." Amanda Garcia, an attorney with SELC, told CNBC in an email that, "The Shelby County Health Department is the local entity charged with implementing the relevant air permitting requirements, and has the authority to hold xAI accountable under existing law." At a Shelby County commissioners public hearing on Wednesday, residents expressed alarm at xAI's use of the natural gas-burning turbines, and the health problems that can follow without strong mitigation efforts. Easter May Knox, a resident who lives near the xAI facility, said her family has struggled with chronic respiratory problems. She said she wants to be able to wake up early in the morning and open the windows in her house. "But when I open up that window, I smell everything but the right thing and the right thing is the clean air," she said. "Elon Musk has all the money. He's a millionaire, billionaire, whatever kind of -aire he is. But we need clean air!" Other residents and officials in attendance complained that Brent Mayo, a senior manager at xAI, didn't show up to hear their concerns after they reached out to him directly. Mayo is responsible for building out xAI's technical infrastructure, including in Southwest Memphis. Representatives for the Shelby County Health Department and xAI didn't respond to requests for comment.

Musk's xAI criticized over unauthorized gas turbines at data facility

According to aerial images accessed by the Virginia-based non-profit Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), the xAI data center -- which powers X's AI chatbot Grok -- has breached the permit by installing 20 additional generators 'illegally'. Musk's company had initially planned to support its Colossus supercomputer which uses around 150 megawatts of power with 100,000 H100 GPUs, even more when upgraded to 200,000. But in July last year, the site could only supply 8 megawatts, prompting xAI to install more gas-powered turbines to make up the difference. The company originally applied for permits to install only 15 gas generators. This has raised concerns from environmental groups and local residents, as the additional units may not have the necessary approvals and could have long-term impact on health of the local community. KeShaun Pearson, director of the advocacy group Memphis Community Against Pollution, told the Shelby County Board of Commissioners that xAI is operating 35 methane gas-burning turbines, despite only having a permit for 15, Guardian reported. "Suffocating our community with formaldehyde and nitrogen oxide from these 35 dirty, unpermitted gas turbines shows the blatant disregard for the lives of the majority Black community in South Memphis. The rapid scaling of these dangerous toxic pollutants is this is reckless, irresponsible, and a threat to us all. The Shelby County Health Department must take decisive action and shut down xAI immediately," Pearson noted.

Elon Musk's xAI powering its facility in Memphis with 'illegal' generators

Advocacy group contends the firm is using 35 methane gas burning turbines, but has permission for only 15 KeShaun Pearson took a seat in front of the Shelby county board of commissioners in Memphis, Tennessee, on Wednesday morning. In the gallery behind him, a small group of people held up signs that said "Our air = our lives" and "Our water, Our future." With a manner-of-fact demeanor, Pearson addressed the commissioners. "I'm here because today we've learned that xAI is using 35 methane gas burning turbines," said Pearson, who is the director of the advocacy group Memphis Community Against Pollution. "They have submitted a permit to our Shelby county health department for 15, yet they are using double that amount with no permit." It's been known that xAI, Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, has been using around 15 portable generators to help power its massive supercomputer in Memphis without yet securing permits. But new aerial images obtained by the Southern Environmental Law Center show that number is now far higher. The group says these gas turbines combined can generate around 420MW of electricity, enough to power an entire city. "xAI has essentially built a power plant in South Memphis with no oversight, no permitting, and no regard for families living in nearby communities," Amanda Garcia, senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, said in a statement. "These dozens of gas turbines are doing significant harm to the air Memphians breathe every day." The 35 generators xAI is using are "illegal" and a "major source of air pollution", the law center wrote in a letter to the Shelby county health department on Wednesday. It says these high emission rates violate the Clean Air Act, including specified limits on toxic and carcinogenic pollution. Musk fired up his xAI facility in Memphis last summer. He calls the supercomputer "Colossus" and it's tasked with providing compute power for xAI's chatbot Grok. The building that houses Colossus is the size of 13 football fields and Musk has said he plans to double that. Artificial intelligence requires an immense amount of energy to carry out computations and provide quick responses to user queries. For example, a query with ChatGPT needs nearly 10 times as much electricity as a typical Google search query, according to a report by Goldman Sachs. In the US, the majority of that electricity comes from burning fossil fuels like coal and gas, which are primary drivers of climate change. xAI already has contracts to draw 150MW of electricity from Memphis' local utility, which is enough to power 100,000 homes a year. But Musk has said he needs even more energy to deal with power fluctuation issues at the plant. When the first few methane gas generators appeared outside the xAI facility last summer, it caused a stir because the Shelby county health department and the Environmental Protection Agency said xAI wasn't using permits to run those generators. It appears the company found a loophole in the system that allows it to use the gas generators as long as they're not in the same location for more than 364 days. In January, xAI applied for a permit for 15 generators, but there was no mention of the additional 20 units in the application. The Shelby county health separtment, Environmental Protection Agency and xAI did not immediately return requests for comment. The Southern Environmental Law Center says these generators are running 24/7 and pump harmful nitrogen oxides into the air. Within one to two miles of xAI are several residential neighborhoods, where the people who live there have long dealt with industrial pollution. This area is historically Black and has higher rates of cancer and asthma and a lower life expectancy than other parts of the city. In its letter to the health department, the Southern Environmental Law Center says an emergency order should be issued that requires xAI to cease or suspend the use of the 35 generators. If xAI doesn't comply, the group says, it should be penalized $25,000 each day it violates the Clean Air Act. A representative from xAI, Brent Mayo, was on the agenda to speak with the Shelby county board of commissioners on Wednesday. But he didn't show up. The commission chair said she sent three emails to Mayo notifying him of the meeting and that "we did not hear back from him". A representative for the Chamber of Commerce, which has worked with xAI to set up its facility in Memphis, told the commissioners that xAI didn't get the emails. Members of the community, like Pearson, did speak to the commissioners on Wednesday. They all had concerns with xAI's pollution and the multiplying of its gas generators. Pearson is from one of the neighborhoods near xAI and said both of his grandmothers died of cancer in their 60s. He believes their deaths were caused by living so close to Memphis' industrial zone. "Nobody else should be burying their families because these rogue, rich, white, racist people continue to build projects that are suffocating us," Pearson said. "This is all preventable."

Elon Musk Reportedly Doing Something Horrid to Power His AI Data Center

It's no secret that Elon Musk's wealth is staggering. At the time of writing, he's worth over $325 billion. To give that number a sense of scale, that's $62 billion more than the total annual salary of every worker in Michigan combined -- all 4.3 million of them. So why is he powering his data centers with rinky-dink portable generators? New aerial surveillance footage obtained by the Southern Environmental Law Center has found that Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, is using 35 methane gas generators to power its "Colossus" supercomputer facility, the backbone of its flagship Grok. That's 20 more generators than the 15 xAI filed permits for, and 35 more than it was approved to use. The data center, nestled in historic south Memphis, came online last September, despite protests from community leaders. AI data centers are notoriously loud, and hog water and electricity like a mid-sized American city. Case in point, the local utility company, Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) estimates the Memphis facility will soon be sucking up one million gallons of water per day, as well as 150 megawatts of power, once it reaches its full power. Though the MLGW says it's "executed four standard electric service agreements, one water service, and one gas service agreement" with xAI -- totaling 50 megawatts of power -- Musk says the facility needs much more due to rapid power fluctuations in his system of 10 to 20 megawatts at a time. But getting approval for that kind of power is a slow and cautious process, according to Bloomberg, as rapid data center construction runs up against the limits of what civilian power grids can provide. Never one to wait for approval, Musk has chosen instead to exploit a loophole in local regulations, which seemingly allow him to park a fleet of toxic methane generators outside his facility as long as they don't sit in the same location for 364 days. Local residents, meanwhile, are left to deal with the toxic fallout. One report by ProPublica found that the cancer rate in this area of Memphis is four times higher than the national average. The low, flat land here has historically been used as an out-of-site locale for megacorporations to plant industrial facilities, resulting in waves of health crises as toxins like ethylene oxide and arsenic pollute the nearby ground, water, and air. Generators like xAI's emit huge amounts of nitrogen dioxide, a highly reactive gas which causes irreversible respiratory damage over time. And that's before you consider its effects on the ozone layer, or its contribution to acid rain, smog, and nutrient pollution in local soil and waterways. With 35 generators now chugging along, that's a whole chorus of turbines spewing the toxic gas into low-income, minority-led communities 24/7. With the city urging residents to grin and bear it, and the EPA staying silent since October, the burden is falling on the communities affected to stand up to Musk's move-fast-and-spew-gas AI strategy. "Nobody else should be burying their families because these rogue, rich, white, racist people continue to build projects that are suffocating us," KeShaun Pearson, a local resident and director of the Memphis Community Against Pollution told The Guardian. "This is all preventable."

Is Elon Musk's xAI breaking clean air laws?

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI is under fire in Memphis, Tennessee, after an environmental advocacy group accused the company of running dozens of unpermitted gas turbines at its massive data center -- raising serious air quality concerns for local residents. According to a letter sent this week by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) to the Shelby County Health Department, xAI has installed 35 gas turbines at its Memphis facility, despite only applying for permits to temporarily operate 15 turbines. The SELC says that aerial imagery and other data confirmed the presence of 35 turbines at the site, known internally as Colossus. These turbines are estimated to generate 421 megawatts of power -- comparable to an entire Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) power plant. The turbines, according to manufacturer data cited by SELC, emit between 1,200 and 2,000 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx) per year. That would make xAI the single largest industrial emitter of NOx in Memphis -- a city already struggling with industrial pollution. NOx emissions are particularly concerning because they are precursors to ozone and smog formation, and prolonged exposure is linked to respiratory diseases and increased mortality risks. At a public hearing on Wednesday, residents living near the xAI facility expressed anger and fear over the potential health impacts. Easter May Knox, a nearby resident, told officials: "When I open up that window, I smell everything but the right thing and the right thing is the clean air. Elon Musk has all the money. He's a millionaire, billionaire, whatever kind of -aire he is. But we need clean air!" Residents also criticized xAI management for failing to engage with the community. Brent Mayo, xAI's senior manager overseeing infrastructure in Memphis, reportedly ignored direct outreach from locals and did not attend the public hearing. The SELC claims xAI is likely in violation of the Clean Air Act as well as Shelby County's strict preconstruction permitting requirements for major pollution sources. Amanda Garcia, an attorney with SELC, said: "The Shelby County Health Department is the local entity charged with implementing the relevant air permitting requirements, and has the authority to hold xAI accountable under existing law." Neither xAI nor the Shelby County Health Department responded to requests for comment from CNBC. Musk founded xAI in 2023 as part of his push to compete directly with OpenAI, the company he co-founded in 2015 but later parted ways with. In late March 2025, Musk merged xAI with his social network X (formerly Twitter) in an $80 billion all-stock deal, further raising xAI's profile and resources. The Memphis facility has been critical to xAI's ambitions. Last year, the company began training its AI models using 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs at the site. While xAI's long-term plan is to transition to power from Memphis Light, Gas and Water and TVA, the turbines were supposed to be a temporary solution. Now, with 35 turbines running -- more than double what was permitted -- Musk's latest project finds itself embroiled in environmental controversy, adding to the list of regulatory clashes involving his other companies, including Tesla and SpaceX. The Shelby County Health Department now faces pressure to investigate and potentially enforce penalties against xAI. The SELC is calling for immediate action to protect the health of Memphis residents. As Musk continues his efforts to build xAI into a global AI powerhouse, the situation in Memphis highlights a growing question for the billionaire's ventures: Can innovation and environmental responsibility coexist?

Musk's XAI Increased Tennessee Gas Turbines Without Permits, Community Groups Say

(Reuters) -Elon Musk's xAI has nearly doubled gas turbines at its Tennessee data center, exceeding previously known figures and surpassing the number for which the company has submitted permits, according to a letter from community groups to the county's health department. The Southern Environmental Law Center and local groups have called on the health department to cease operating all the turbines till the company complies with the critical Clean Air Act and local protections. Reuters could not independently verify the allegations, and the Environmental Protection Agency, Shelby County Health Department and xAI did not immediately respond to requests for comment. "The dozens of turbines operating outside the datacenter likely make xAI the largest industrial source of the smog-forming pollutant NOx in Memphis," Southern Environmental Law Center said in a statement. The data center's expanded turbine operations and resulting emissions require xAI to obtain a "major source permit", yet the company operates the equipment without any regulatory authorization, the group added. The massive surge in power consumption of AI-supporting data centers in the United States is driving an increase in the usage of fossil fuels as clean-energy deployments struggle to keep up. Billionaire Musk had dubbed the Tennessee data center, which powers the firm's Grok chatbot, as "the most powerful AI training cluster in the world" last year. The environmental law group said xAI's 35 gas turbines have a capacity of 422 MW, comparable to the Tennessee Valley Authority's Brownsville gas power plant, which has a capacity of 425 MW. It had said in August that xAI's Memphis data center had installed nearly 20 gas turbines with a combined capacity of about 100 MW. The Greater Memphis Chamber said in December that xAI planned to expand its Memphis supercomputer to house at least one million graphics processing units. In late March, the AI firm acquired Musk-owned X in a deal that values the social media platform at $33 billion. (Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath)