A new lawsuit accuses Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company of illegally spewing toxic pollutants into residential neighborhoods on the border of Tennessee and Mississippi.
The suit, filed on Tuesday in Mississippi federal court, alleges xAI is violating the Clean Air Act due to emissions from itsmakeshift power plant in Southaven, Mississippi, which powers its datacenter there. The NAACP, represented by the environmental groups Southern Environmental Law Center and Earthjustice, says xAI has been polluting areas with homes, schools and churches, including in historically Black communities, by using dozens of methane gas generators without permits.
The organization is seeking to force the company to stop operating its unpermitted turbines in Southaven.
“A data center should not be a potential death sentence for a community’s health,” Abre’ Conner, the director of environmental and climate justice for the NAACP, said in a statement. “By looking to evade clear air laws to operate dirty turbines that emit pollution and known carcinogens, these companies are following a shameful, familiar pattern: asking Black and frontline communities to bear the toxic brunt of ‘innovation’.”
xAI has two datacenters in the region, nicknamed “Colossus” and “Colossus II” . They are massive facilities, with the latter occupying 1m sq ft in Southaven. Colossus is located in Tennesseein Memphis’s industrial zone and a few miles from residential neighborhoods that have long dealt with harmful pollution, including Boxtown, a neighborhood that was established by formerly enslaved people after emancipation in the 19th century.
The NAACP’s lawsuit alleges xAI illegally installed and operated up to 27 gas turbines, each one the size of a large bus, to power its datacenter in Southaven. The group claims Colossus II has the capacity to emit more than 1,700 tons of harmful nitrogen oxides per year, along with toxic chemicals like formaldehyde.
xAI did not respond to request for comment.
Black residents still make up a large portion of the Memphis area neighborhoods, which have faced higher rates of asthma and respiratory diseases as well as a lower life expectancy than other parts of the city. Studies have likewise shown these neighborhoods have a cancer risk that is four times the national average.
The NAACP is asking the court to declare that xAI violated the Clean Air Act, order the company to install the “best available control technology on the power plant” and to pay financial penalties for every day it violated federal law. The NAACP has a similar pending lawsuit against xAI for its Colossus facility in Memphis.
Methane gas generators keep multiplying
xAI announced the construction of its first Colossus datacenter in Memphis in 2024 to power its chatbot Grok. Shortly after, dozens of methane gas generators started to appear at that location. By the time Musk said the facility was up and running, 122 days later, there were at least 18 generators going, per aerial photographs the Southern Environmental Law Center took of the facility.
By April 2025, that number had nearly doubled, photos showed. Eventually, xAI got permits for 15 generators there.
Last year, xAI began work on Colossus II in Southaven and again brought in dozens of portable gas turbines. In March, Mississippi regulators approved a permit for 41 permanent turbines in Southaven. The NAACP says xAI is illegally operating 27 generators at this location without air permits and is asking that regulators revoke the March permit.
Separately, xAI is working on building another datacenter in Southaven named Macrohardrr, where it is expected to also use gas-burning turbines.
The rapid growth of xAI in Memphis and Southaven has seen fierce opposition from residents, despite support from each city’s mayor and the chamber of commerce.
Community members, local politicians and environmental non-profits have held protests and public forums to speak out against the pollution they say xAI is generating.
“Our right to clean air is not up for negotiation, especially when companies prove expediency not people is their priority,” said the NAACP’s Conner.