Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI is facing a second lawsuit alleging it is illegally emitting toxic pollutants from its enormous datacenters, which house its supercomputers and run the chatbot Grok.
The new pending suit alleges xAI is violating the Clean Air Act and was filed Friday by the storied civil rights group the NAACP. The group’s 40-page notice of intent to sue alleges xAI has been polluting Black communities near its facility in Southaven, Mississippi. The pollution comes from more than a dozen portable methane gas generators that xAI set up without permits, the notice alleges.
The NAACP’s first notice of intent to sue was filed last June and involves similar allegations regarding the company’s datacenter in Memphis, Tennessee. In order to file a lawsuit under the Clean Air Act, parties must file an intent to sue notice at least 60 days prior. The NAACP’s case in Memphis did not progress toward a lawsuit after xAI obtained permits for its generators there.
“As we shared when xAI began its operation in Tennessee, this illegal pollution only exacerbates complications to frontline communities who continue to bear the brunt of environmental injustice,” said Abre’ Conner, the NAACP’s director of environmental and climate justice. “We cannot allow for companies to promise a better future while pumping harmful chemicals into the air we breathe.”
xAI set up its first datacenter in Memphis in the summer of 2024. It’s a massive facility, roughly the size of 13 football fields, and named “Colossus”. The company has since erected a second, even bigger datacenter named Colossus 2 in Southaven. The building of a third xAI datacenter, also in Southaven, just got under way last month. Southaven is in the Memphis metropolitan area, but located just over the state border in Mississippi.
Community members in Southaven have complained about the noise and pollution coming from Colossus 2. They’ve also circulated a petition demanding accountability from Mississippi regulators.
The NAACP’s suit in Southaven is intended to challenge xAI’s use of unpermitted turbines. The group alleges that the company has 27 generators without permits at this facility, and it has documented more than a dozen of them being in use since last fall.
Separately, a Guardian investigation published on Friday found that xAI has moved in 27 portable turbines at Colossus 2. Using thermal imagery, the Guardian concluded that 18 of those generators have been used since November.
These types of gas generators emit fine particulate matter that contains hazardous chemicals like formaldehyde and nitrogen oxide. These pollutants are tied to an increase in diseases, like asthma, respiratory illness and certain cancers. The NAACP says that xAI’s 27 turbines in Southaven have the potential to emit a “staggering amount” of nitrogen oxides, likely making the facility the largest industrial source of the chemical in the metropolitan area.
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