Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is under scrutiny for nearly doubling the number of gas turbines at its Memphis, Tennessee, data center—well beyond the count disclosed in its permit filings. The revelation comes from a letter sent by community and environmental groups to the Shelby County Health Department, urging immediate action to halt turbine operations until the company complies with the Clean Air Act and local air quality regulations.
The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) and several local organizations allege that xAI is now running 35 gas turbines—far more than the 20 turbines with a 100 MW capacity reported last August. According to SELC, these turbines now generate 422 megawatts (MW), nearly matching the output of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Brownsville gas plant, which has a 425 MW capacity.
In a statement, SELC warned that “the dozens of turbines operating outside the datacenter likely make xAI the largest industrial source of the smog-forming pollutant nitrogen oxide (NOx) in Memphis.” The group also claimed that the scale of emissions from the expanded operations requires xAI to obtain a “major source permit”—a legal threshold for high-pollution sites under the Clean Air Act—yet no such permit has been granted.
The Environmental Protection Agency, the Shelby County Health Department, and xAI did not immediately respond to media inquiries. Reuters also noted it could not independently verify the claims.
The allegations highlight growing environmental concerns surrounding AI data centers, which are rapidly increasing their energy demands. Clean energy infrastructure is struggling to keep pace, leading to higher dependence on fossil fuels such as natural gas to meet the power needs of these tech giants.
Musk has touted the Memphis data center—home to xAI’s Grok chatbot—as “the most powerful AI training cluster in the world.” In December, the Greater Memphis Chamber revealed that xAI aims to scale the facility further to accommodate at least one million GPUs.
In late March, xAI made headlines again after acquiring Musk’s social media platform X (formerly Twitter) in a deal that valued the company at $33 billion.
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