Elon Musk's xAI gets permit for 15 natural gas turbines at Memphis data center with emissions caps.

Elon Musk's xAI gets permit for 15 natural gas turbines at Memphis data center with emissions caps.

Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, has received regulatory approval to operate 15 natural gas turbines at its Memphis-area data center. The Shelby County Health Department granted the permit under conditions that include emissions controls for the Solar SMT-130 generators, which are capable of producing up to 247 megawatts of electricity [1].

The permit comes amid ongoing legal pressure from environmental groups. The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), representing the NAACP, has threatened to sue xAI for previously operating up to 35 turbines without permits, in violation of the Clean Air Act [3]. The permit allows significant pollutant emissions, including formaldehyde, NOx, and carbon monoxide, and places emissions monitoring responsibility on xAI. An independent air quality study has also been proposed by local community groups.

xAI recently raised $10 billion in funding, including $5 billion in debt and $5 billion in equity, from investors [1]. The company is expected to generate $13 billion in annual earnings by 2029, according to Bloomberg [1]. In March, xAI acquired Musk's social network X in an all-stock deal, which propelled xAI to a $113 billion valuation [1].

The Memphis data center is part of xAI's efforts to build a Colossus supercomputer, which is to be constructed in just 122 days [2]. The supercomputer, which uses 100,000 Nvidia H100 graphics cards, is expected to allow xAI to quickly catch up with competitors OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic in creating advanced artificial intelligence [2].

The permit allows xAI to continue its operations despite widespread public opposition and a lawsuit filed against it [2]. The company's Grok chatbot, which is powered by the gas turbines, has been catching up with competitors like ChatGPT and Gemini with its "memory" function [3].

References:
[1] https://seekingalpha.com/news/4465304-elon-musks-xai-issued-permits-for-15-natural-gas-turbines-at-memphis-data-center-report
[2] https://unn.ua/en/news/air-pollution-to-continue-elon-musks-xai-data-center-allowed-to-operate-gas-turbines
[3] https://theaiinsider.tech/2025/07/04/xai-granted-permit-for-15-gas-turbines-at-memphis-data-center-amid-legal-threats/