Several environmental groups in Memphis, Tennessee, said a recently opened data center operated by Elon Musk’s xAI is contributing to the city’s already dire smog problem. The groups claimed that xAI’s use of gas turbines to power the supercomputer facility is not properly approved and will only worsen the city’s poor air quality. Such problems are not unusual for Musk, whose other companies have come under environmental suspicion before.
Musk, CEO of SpaceX, Tesla (TSLA) and The Boring Company, founded xAI last year and raised $6 billion for the startup in May. Its flagship product so far is Grok, a chatbot that is said to be able to express more humor and less political correctness than competitors like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. To develop and train next-generation Grok models, Musk announced plans in June to open a data center in a former manufacturing facility in Memphis. xAI’s data center houses 100,000 Nvidia (NVDA) H100 graphics processing units (GPUs) and can handle 50 megawatts of power from the city’s Memphis Light, Gas and
The plant currently generates electricity using gas-burning turbines. xAI has installed at least 18 gas turbines but failed to obtain the necessary air permits for them, according to a letter sent this week by the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) on behalf of four climate groups to the health department of Shelby County, whose cities include Memphis.
“South Memphis has been overburdened by industrial pollution for decades, and ignoring the unpermitted gas turbines at the xAI plant will only continue the long legacy of environmental injustice in these predominantly Black communities,” Amanda Garcia, an attorney for SELC, said in a statement provided to the Observer. “We call on health officials to investigate these turbines and take the necessary action to help Memphis residents breathe easier.”
SELC, which claims xAI’s turbines do not meet the criteria for a permit exemption, pointed out that the startup’s turbines can emit 130 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx), making them the ninth-largest source of NOx, a pollutant that contributes to smog, in Shelby County. The region has long had a smog problem and received an “F” rating for air quality from the American Lung Association. “In other words, Memphis residents are currently breathing unhealthy air and the problem is getting worse,” the group’s letter said.
According to SELC, the organization has not yet received a response from the health department. xAI did not respond to requests for comment.
Elon Musk’s companies have a history with environmental groups
This is not the first time one of Musk’s projects has faced opposition on environmental grounds. The Boring Company, his tunneling company, has a history of violations related to its development sites in Bastrop County, Texas. A statement from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) said the company failed to minimize emissions from truck washouts.
SpaceX has also received violations from the TCEQ regarding pollutants in discharged wastewater near Boca Chica, Texas, where its Starbase development center is located. And earlier this year, Tesla was sued by a climate nonprofit for allegedly emitting pollutants from its paint shop in Fremont, California, since 2021.
When it comes to the worrying environmental impact of AI data centers, xAI is not alone. Greenhouse gas emissions have skyrocketed as major tech companies race to develop the facilities for their models, which are expected to consume enormous amounts of energy to keep up with demand. Data centers, which currently use 1 to 2 percent of the world’s electricity, could see that rise to 3 to 4 percent by the end of the decade, more than doubling their carbon dioxide emissions in that time, according to researchers at Goldman Sachs. For example, Google’s (GOOGL) greenhouse gas emissions rose 48 percent between 2019 and 2023, while Microsoft’s (MSFT) have risen 29 percent since 2020.
