Elon Musk Brought The World’s Largest Supercomputer To Memphis, But Residents Aren’t Happy

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Billionaire Elon Musk is facing backlash after his artificial intelligence company xAI brought the world’s largest supercomputer to Memphis, Tennessee.

Residents in Memphis have been complaining that Musk’s company, xAI, has caused a lot of smog in their neighborhoods.

Local environmental groups have reported that xAI has produced large amounts of nitrogen oxides, also known as Nox.

Musk has named the supercomputer Colossus and claims it is the “most powerful AI training system in the world.”

Per Politico:

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company is belching smog-forming pollution into an area of South Memphis that already leads the state in emergency department visits for asthma.

None of the 35 methane gas turbines that help power xAI’s massive supercomputer is equipped with pollution controls typically required by federal rules.

The company has no Clean Air Act permits.

In just 11 months since the company arrived in Memphis, xAI has become one of Shelby County’s largest emitters of smog-producing nitrogen oxides, according to calculations by environmental groups whose data has been reviewed by POLITICO’s E&E News. The plant is in an area whose air is already considered unhealthy due to smog.

The turbines spew nitrogen oxides, also known as NOx, at an estimated rate of 1,200 to 2,000 tons a year — far more than the gas-fired power plant across the street or the oil refinery down the road. That’s according to calculations by the Southern Environmental Law Center, a nonpartisan legal advocacy group that focuses on the South, which used turbine manufacturer spec sheets to estimate xAI’s annual emissions and compare them with pollution that other South Memphis plants have reported to the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Emissions Inventory.

The turbines were necessary to get the third version of the company’s AI chatbot up and running in time, Musk said at the product’s launch in February, adding: “We have generators on one side of the building, just trailer after trailer of generators until we can get the utility power to come in.” He has not publicly addressed the pollution concerns and did not respond to requests for comment about the turbines powering the plant and their lack of pollution controls.

Check out what CNN reported:

Last summer, an abandoned factory in southwest Memphis got a new life courtesy of the world’s richest man. Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI moved in to transform this unprepossessing building into the “world’s largest supercomputer.”
Musk named it Colossus and said it was the “most powerful AI training system in the world.” It was sold locally as a source of jobs, tax dollars and a key addition to the “Digital Delta” — the move to make Memphis a hotspot for advanced technology.
“This is just the beginning,” xAI said on its website; the company already has plans for a second facility in the city.

But for some residents in nearby Boxtown, a majority Black, economically-disadvantaged community that has long endured industrial pollution, xAI’s facility represents yet another threat to their health.
AI is immensely power-hungry, and Musk’s company installed dozens of gas-powered turbines, known to produce a cocktail of toxic pollutants. The company currently has no air permits, appearing to rely on a loophole for temporary turbines — but environmental groups say the exemption does not apply, and residents are angry.
“Our health was never considered, the safety of our communities was never, ever considered,” said Sarah Gladney, who lives 3 miles from the facility and suffers from a lung condition.
xAI did not respond to CNN’s requests for comment.
Drone footage of xAI’s Memphis supercomputer taken on May 8, 2025. CNN
This part of Memphis, home to 17 other polluting facilities — including an oil refinery, steel plant and gas-fired power plant — is used to fighting for clean air.



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