xAI will add to Tennessee’s worsening air pollution. (Photo: Zheng Xiaoqiao | Dreamstime.com)
In the race to build artificial intelligence, the environmental cost of progress has found a new ground zero: Memphis, Tennessee. There, in a former manufacturing facility owned by the Swedish multinational Electrolux, Elon Musk’s xAI has quietly constructed what Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang calls “easily the fastest supercomputer on the planet.” Built in just 19 days — a feat Huang claimed would take others a year — Colossus, the supercomputer, comes with a toxic catch.
The environmental impact of operating the Colossus center, used to power xAI’s chatbot Grok, is immense. Touted as possessing a “sense of humor” and slated for a December debut, the latest Grok 3 model will not only consume an astonishing amount of energy during its initial training phase, but will continue to demand 10 times the energy of a standard Google search for each individual query processed. The project was rushed into operation without air permits, powered by at least 18 Taurus 60 methane gas turbines that are pumping pollutants including greenhouse gas emissions and dangerous waste by-products into neighborhoods already struggling with some of America’s worst air quality.
Each of the Taurus 60 gas turbines at the facility generates 5.6 megawatts of power, enough to power 5,000 average U.S. households. And this is just the beginning — having raised $6 billion in venture capital funding earlier this year, xAI has already secured agreements with Memphis Light, Gas & Water and the Tennessee Valley Authority to potentially double its power consumption for the post-training inference phase, with an additional undisclosed capacity approved through seven electric, gas, and water contracts with the local utility, despite community protests. The current 18 gas turbines, powering 100,000 liquid-cooled Nvidia graphical processing units, result in annual emissions of 72.3 tons of nitrogen oxides (NOx), 196.4 tons of carbon monoxide, and an alarming 438,000 tons of CO2 equivalent per turbine. Multiply that by 18 turbines, and you have an environmental disaster in the making. The human cost? In Shelby County, where more than half the population are people of color and the poverty rate is 1.5 times the national average, incidences of childhood asthma are already the highest in the state. The additional pollution from xAI’s facility threatens to worsen these health burdens, costing the community around $400 million annually from carbon pollution alone.
The burden of environmental costs from ill-sited, large-scale AI infrastructure does not end at carbon pollution. In South Memphis’ Boxtown neighborhood less than two miles east of the factory, residents already face a cancer rate four times the national average and a life expectancy 10 years below the city average. The American Lung Association has given the South Memphis area an “F” grade for ozone, and now xAI’s unpermitted turbines could add an estimated 1,301 tons of nitrogen oxides, a precursor to ozone pollution, annually to Memphis’ air. The community hosts a concerning collection of industrial facilities, including a steel mill and an oil refinery. Now, they’re bearing the burden of Musk’s AI ambitions.
The project’s approval process itself raises troubling questions about corporate accountability and local governance. The project was launched in a rapid and secretive manner: The facility’s location was initially kept secret for “global security concerns”; local officials were bound by nondisclosure agreements; even Memphis City Council members were taken by surprise with the sudden announcement of the facility. While xAI promised the community 300 jobs, they currently list just 32 positions — most of them hourly, contractual roles in administrative support.
This isn’t Musk’s first environmental controversy. SpaceX operated without Clean Water Act permits in Texas, The Boring Company was fined for unauthorized wastewater discharge, and Tesla faced citations for hazardous air pollutant emissions. Now, xAI is following this concerning pattern in a state with obviously worsening air pollution trends.
The irony is rich: Colossus powers Grok, marketed as an “anti-woke” alternative to ChatGPT, while perpetuating environmental racism. While competitors like Microsoft and Google invest in renewable energy for their AI infrastructure, xAI chose the path of highest environmental impact, and least cost. Morgan Stanley estimates data centers will triple their CO2 emissions by decade’s end due to AI development. But must this progress come at the expense of vulnerable communities? The residents of South Memphis deserve better than subsidizing technological advancement with their health.
The solution isn’t to halt AI development but to demand responsible innovation. xAI must obtain proper permits, install modern pollution controls, and engage transparently with the community through the life cycle of its AI plans. This is even more imperative as xAI’s self-styled techno king Musk takes on his new advisory role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Local officials must also prioritize environmental concerns over expedited development.
As we marvel at AI’s potential to “understand the universe” — xAI’s stated mission — we cannot ignore its earthly impacts. The true measure of progress should not be merely the speed or scale of innovation, but the inclusivity and sustainability of its benefits. Until then, Memphis’ children will continue to breathe the toxic cost of progress.
Jalal Awan, Ph.D., is an electrical engineer with a doctorate in public policy analysis. Opinions expressed are his own.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are partnering to create a new U.S. government agency, the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk underwrote the Trump campaign with $200 million in donations (AP estimate) and his own brand of buying votes.
Supposedly, the acronym comes from Musk’s favorite cryptocurrency, the Doge. Whatever. When Heather Cox Richardson says the name of the pending Musk/Ramaswamy agency, she pronounces it doggy. She’s authoritative enough for me.
So yes, Musk paid for his new appointment, which represent a colossal conflict of interest, as that agency reportedly, avowedly, will shut down many regulations that currently govern aspects of Musk’s enormous U.S. government contracts. Getting his new powers involved corruption — a person really isn’t supposed to pay to acquire powers in the U.S. federal government. Can there be a shred of doubt that corruption won’t feature in nullifying EPA regulations on SpaceX, Tesla, and other Musk holdings?
But that is just toxic foreplay. Musk and Ramaswamy tell Forbes they will cut some $2 trillion in U.S. federal spending (sparing all the contracts with Musk-owned corporations, no doubt). What do they intend to defund?
They will get rid of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which tells us, “We protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or abusive practices and take action against companies that break the law.” Thanks, Elon, for planning to deep-six this one.
Goodbye, Department of Education. Populist demagogues like Trump have railed against such an unwanted department for decades, clearly tired of spending funds on schools that serve marginalized communities
DOGE will get really vicious with organizations like Planned Parenthood, which averages approximately $50 million a year in federal funding. Reproductive help for women is almost certainly taking that hit.
Musk will make headlines when he and Ramaswamy end the $535 million federal support for public radio and TV. They actually called that “unauthorized spending,” even though Congress authorized it. You may not get public TV — so long, Sesame Street — but you will get a full display of gaslighting.
The Veterans Administration healthcare funding is targeted by Musk — interesting, a white South African deciding the U.S. military veterans should stop getting healthcare.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund imposed “austerity” measures on some poor countries that were not managing to repay loans and the impacts were severe, with poverty increased and government services decreased, even eliminated. The targeted countries — such as Greece, Kenya, and many more — reacted with cries of extreme pain and many of those harmful punishing policies were curtailed.
Musk says his DOGE will inflict hardship. Many Americans will lose their jobs, both inside the government and outside. The government contracts with many companies and when DOGE decides those contracts are not going to be honored, the losses will be severe in some quarters. Add to that the rising consumer prices that are widely predicted from Trump’s tariffs on Canada, Mexico, and China (and possibly everyone else), and the American lifestyle may be in for the biggest shock since 1929.
When Trump was desperately seeking votes from retirees and those who love them, he promised not to cut Social Security, and even added that he would stop the practice of the IRS taxing Social Security. We will see if Musk lets him keep that promise.
It is astonishing that, in a roaring Biden-Harris economy that is benefiting literally every class of Americans, Trump garnered more votes than Harris and will throw wrenches into many of the gears of that economy, if Musk succeeds.
Dr. Tom H. Hastings is coordinator of conflict resolution BA/BS degree programs and certificates at Portland State University. His views, however, are not those of any institution.
Elon Musk. Photo by Trevor Cokley / Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
On Wednesday, community leaders and advocacy groups here called for more transparency surrounding Elon Musk’s xAI project, a project they openly oppose because of its negative environmental impact and disproportionate effect on minority communities.
These leaders gathered in front of the Downtown Memphis Commission office before a planned private meeting between xAI representative Brent Mayo and the Greater Memphis Chamber. Officials from Protect Our Aquifer, Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP), and Young, Gifted & Green released a joint statement saying Mayo has “ignored requests for dialogue and demands for transparency from the community.”
In July, the groups asked city leaders to deny an electricity deal for the project and demanded a public review of the project. A letter from the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) outlined community concern and condemned Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW)’s CEO Doug McGowen for approving an electricity deal.
According to SELC, MLGW has requested that the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) provide 150 megawatts of power to xAI. SELC said this demand is enough to power 100,000 homes. MCAP and Young, Gifted & Green joined the Sierra Club Tennessee Chapter and the Sierra Club Chickasaw Group in signing the SELC’s letter.
Many condemned the Chamber for its lack of transparency, specifically towards those in the Black community, and said its decision goes against the 17 principles of environmental justice. LaTricea D. Adams, founder, CEO, and president of Young, Gifted & Green, said the Chamber exhibited exclusionary, experimental, and racist practices.
“As a Memphian by choice and birthright I am deeply troubled by the decision made by the [Greater Memphis Chamber] to bring xAI to a Black community with absolutely no community engagement, particularly from the Black residents who will be directly impacted,” Adams said.
Memphis City Council Member Yolanda Cooper-Sutton, representative of District 3, called the company “monstrous” and said it was disappointing to find this out through the media. She said taxpayers deserve to have a seat at the table like the elite of the city.
“We as a people here in Memphis — a predominantly Black city, the poorest of the poorest — have not been allowed to be engaged in this impact that is going to impact our lives, the future of our children, the future of our children’s children, and the future of our children’s children’s children,” Cooper-Sutton said.
Paul Klein, co-chair of the Memphis chapter of the Climate Reality Project, further outlined how minority communities and those living in South Memphis are disproportionately affected by climate change. He said South Memphis has four times the cancer rate compared to the rest of the city and there were 17 toxic release facilities prior to xAI’s announcement.
“We feel that it is imperative to require that xAI put their promises in writing, such as their commitments to enlarge our wastewater treatment plants and then to use only treated wastewater for cooling,” Klein said. “It needs to be in a legally enforceable community benefit agreement.”
KeShaun Pearson, president of MCAP, said the best case scenario is that the Greater Memphis Chamber uses their influence to change how xAI operates in the community and to include the community to influence more sustainable operation. He added they aren’t against economic development but are proponents of ethical operation.
Pearson said they are used to the city making large-scale decisions without consulting with residents. He said he looks at this as an opportunity for the Chamber to “do something different.”
“Unfortunately, this is business as usual,” Pearson said. “We can no longer do business as usual in the city of Memphis, Tennessee. This way of moving does not move us forward. It continuously connects us to fossil fuels. It continuously oppresses the family and communities that need the most support and help.”
Advocates said they will continue to call out organizations that aided in bringing the project to Memphis without the community’s input.
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Weird Elon
Posted to YouTube my Elon Musk
Memphis businessman Elon Musk tweeted something just so weird last week, earning him millions of ughs and boos from every corner of the internet.
Underground, indie singer/songwriter Taylor Swift endorsed Kamala Harris for president with a picture of her cat (iykyk). This prompted Memphis businessman Elon Musk to tweet, “Fine Taylor … you win … I will give you a child and guard your cats with my life.”
Propers
Posted to Reddit by u/AlfofMelmac
Reddit user AlfofMelmac gave propers where they were due last week with a post titled, “Good job, MLGW!” The remnants of Hurricane Francine blustered through Memphis last week and the Redditor was “pleasantly surprised to see that there weren’t a whole lot of lights out on my commute, and not a ton of outages compared to prior big storms!”
Instagram bot @elonmusksjet tracks Elon Musk’s jet and logged a quick visit here Sunday evening, likely checking in on the mysterious goings-on at xAI’s new supercomputer.
Not mysterious, however, were the details of the flight, according to the bot: 1,025 gallons of jet fuel used, at a cost of about $5,742, and 11 tons of CO2 emissions.
(H/t to u/phoebetoes on Reddit)
Last Lodge
Posted to Facebook by Chris McCoy
“Literally every freak in Memphis is at Black Lodge tonight,” wrote Flyer film and TV editor Chris McCoy of the venue’s final event Saturday.
Spicy
Posted to Facebook by Memphis Police Department
Memphis Police Department arrested a 15-year-old male last week on charges of vandalism between $2,500 and $10,000. The alleged “Spicy” tagger was prolific in the I-240/Poplar area. He even taunted the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), which had apparently covered his previous tags, with the message, “Thx 4 ur service TDOT,” and a heart.
Longtime environmentalist Scott Banbury posted a video to Facebook this week showing “the un-permitted turbines currently running at Elon Musk’s xAI facility in Memphis, spewing low-level ozone-forming emissions into our air that is already out of attainment [of national air quality standards].”
Social Bikin’
Posted to Reddit by u/ChillinDylan901
The Memphis Social Bicycle Club meets every Thursday at 7 p.m. at Veterans Plaza in Overton Park, according to Reddit user ChillinDylan901. “The only important part is to make it to our destination before they run out of beer!” the poster said.
‘Insanely rampant’
Posted to YouTube by Versed
Video essayist Versed compared the Memphis and Nashville economies in a YouTube video in July. The GDP of the cities were both around $65 billion in 2000, he said. Nashville exploded to $136 billion in 2023 versus Memphis’ $69 billion that year. Memphis’ “insanely rampant” crime and a consolidated Nashville government were two reasons given for the difference.
He also mysteriously shows a shot of the Hennepin Avenue Bridge in Minneapolis and pronounces it “Appalakkian Mountains.” So … y’know.
“When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.” — Maya Angelou
Here we are, less than 90 days away from a nation-defining election, and the world’s richest man is showing us who he is, every single day. I’m speaking about Elon Musk, the South African mega-billionaire behind Tesla cars, SpaceX rocketry, and xAI, the world’s largest supercomputer, now operating in Memphis.
Musk also runs X, formerly Twitter, the world’s biggest news and chat app, and herein lies a problem. I’m still using X, sometimes against my better judgment, given the amount of racist, misogynist, and white supremacist content that streams from the site. I delete and block posts (and posters) every single day, but there’s always a steady torrent of horrible content, much of it generated by bots and AI.
So why am I still on X? Because it’s still the best place for an information junkie like me to get breaking news. I follow all the major news outlets’ X accounts, plus a couple thousand journalists and writers whose views and reporting I respect, as well as lots of local folks with smart (and often funny) takes on Memphis politics, sports, food, and entertainment. Still, it’s a flood of information, much of it worthless or worse, and you have to be diligent in mining the diamonds from the dreck.
Even when X was Twitter, before Musk bought it for a sweet $44 billion and changed the name, it had lots of crap posts, but the policing of intentional disinformation and vile Nazi-ish stuff was better, and it was usually taken down quickly. Now, not so much. That’s mainly because Musk has taken a hands-on approach to the site, and under the guise of “free speech,” he is consciously permitting, and even encouraging, posts that traffic from the far fringes of the right-wing, white supremacist world.
And it’s not like he’s hiding his intentions. He’s got 194 million followers! (When you join X, you get Musk’s posts and reposts automatically, unless you intentionally unfollow him.) His personal account is a fount of racism, misleading statistics, and outright lies. Often, Musk posts an obviously racist meme and asks — a la Tucker Carlson — “Is this true? Just asking.”
Musk is a Trump supporter, of course. He often reposts anti-Kamala Harris tropes, including those that are obviously false or misleading. On Monday, he hosted Trump for a two-hour “interview” on X, during which Musk lavished praise and admiration for Trump’s “honesty,” among other insane comments. Musk’s politics would be anathema to most of the residents of this decidedly blue city, I suspect, but make no mistake, Musk is here, and in a big way. Needless to say, I’m not a fan, either. He seems weirdly and dangerously unbalanced.
And speaking of fans (and clumsy segues), Musk is now running a bunch of non-permitted gas turbines to power his Memphis supercomputer from its site in South Memphis. They are noisy and are sending gassy fumes into the atmosphere 24 hours a day. I urge you to read Sam Hardiman’s well-reported Daily Memphian story from last Saturday.
Citing a “source close to the company … who is not authorized to speak publicly,” the DM said xAI had determined it had the right to run the non-permitted turbines for 364 days. The DM story also quoted the Greater Memphis Chamber on the matter: “XAI obtained official guidance that based on federal, state, and local regulations that permitting would not be required for this temporary solution to use turbines for testing its supercomputer.” How nice. Let’s hope this deal works out for the benefit of the city, and not just for xAI. I have my doubts. Musk is just not a Memphis kind of guy. He’s a Trump kind of guy, with similar baggage.
Need more proof? Consider this recent Musk repost from Daniel Concannon, the self-titled “World’s Most Unbearably White Man”: “White people have been taught that white people are evil and everyone else is good. Non-white people have been taught that white people are evil and everyone else is good. That’s not divide and conquer. That’s ‘Kill Whitey.’” Musk added a single comment: “True.”
Elon Musk is showing us who he is, folks. It would behoove Memphis — and the rest of the world — to believe him.
Elon Musk. Photo by Trevor Cokley / Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Memphis environmental groups urged officials to deny an electricity deal for xAI, demanded a public review of the project, and said Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) ratepayers could subsidize some large portions of the infrastructure deal.
Details on the deal that brought the Elon-Musk-founded company to locate its artificial intelligence hub — called the Gigafactory of Compute — to Memphis remain few, even almost two months after its announcement.
A Tuesday letter from the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) outlined those knowledge gaps, showed confusion and ignorance on the deal by local leaders, said the facility would cause environmental harm to those in South Memphis, and that MLGW CEO Doug McGowen may have overstepped the boundaries of his position in approving the deal.
The letter was written and sent by the SELC on behalf of the Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP), Young, Gifted & Green, Sierra Club Tennessee Chapter, and the Sierra Club Chickasaw Group. SELC said, “many of these members will be directly affected by xAI’s operation and its harmful local consequences.”
The letter was sent to the board of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). SELC said MLGW is requesting TVA to provide xAI 150 megawatts of power. In the letter, SELC argues TVA’s Memphis system is not reliable enough to handle that much new consumption. Also, it said, a deal for the much energy needs more local approvals.
The 150 megawatt demand is enough to power 100,000 homes.
Southern Environmental Law Center
“The xAI facility is demanding a jaw-dropping 150 MW of firm power by the end of 2024,” reads the letter. “To put that demand in perspective, 150 MW is enough electricity to power 100,000 homes. The xAI facility would become MLGW’s largest electricity customer, siphoning five percent of MLGW’s total daily load to power its operations.”
On reliability, the group said that TVA admitted in October that it did not have enough generating and transmission power in the area even before xAI cam knocking. Back then, TVA proposed a new natural-gas-powered generation project here. The project was necessary to “improve the stability of its transmission system in the western portion of Tennessee. In this area, additional resources are needed to ensure that adequate transmission voltages are maintained within the desired limits,” SELC said, citing TVA’s report.
“Overcommitting to industrial load, as MLGW and xAI have requested, could have serious and even life-threatening consequences for residential customers in Memphis.
Southern Environmental Law Center
“In other words, TVA had already identified a reliability concern in the Memphis-area grid, even before factoring in xAI’s load,” SELC said. “Overcommitting to industrial load, as MLGW and xAI have requested, could have serious and even life-threatening consequences for residential customers in Memphis, contrary to the purpose of the TVA Act and the board policy. When TVA cannot meet peak demand, families go without power during increasingly severe hot and cold weather.”
Further, TVA’s gas-powered plants here are cooled with water from the Memphis Sand Aquifer. Higher strains on those plants — like during winter-weather events here in 2022 and 2021 — caused a serious draw on the aquifer and threaten well fields ”that provide drinking water for predominantly Black, low-income South Memphis communities.”
For these reasons and more, the group urged TVA board members to study the impacts of xAI’s supercomputer before agreeing to serve the facility. That study should include impacts to air pollution, climate change, water quality, water quantity and access, environmental justice, and transportation, SELC said.
“It cannot reasonably be disputed that xAI will require TVA to generate additional electricity and add capacity to the system,” the letter said. “TVA must disclose how it proposes to provide power to xAI, analyze alternatives, and study of the same categories of impacts identified in [the proposal for the new gas plant here] before committing to provide power to xAI.”
SELC also argues that the request to serve xAI is premature “because MLGW has not obtained approval from the MLGW Board or [the Memphis City Council] to spend millions of dollars of ratepayer money to subsidize xAI.” MLGW leaders told council members earlier this month that it would pay for $760,000 worth of substation upgrades for the project. Also, the utility will provide xAI a “marginal allowance” to recoup some of the $24 million it will spent o build a new, $24 million substation, meaning a big break on the company’s power bill.
”Thus, according to MLGW’s presentation [to the council], it seems that over the next few years, ordinary MLGW ratepayers will be subsidizing millions of dollars in infrastructure investments required to serve xAI, both directly and through bill credits to xAI,” the letter said.
Despite this “apparent massive commitment of ratepayer funds to subsidize xAI’s infrastructure needs,” neither the council nor the MLGW board was aware of the xAI project until it was announced on June 5,” SELC said.
Further, the group said MLGW board members weren’t even aware of MLGW’s request to serve xAI with more power from the TVA as late as two weeks ago. For proof, SELC cited an MLGW board meeting on July 17 in which MLGW board member Mitch Graves said, “On the xAI stuff…I wasn’t aware…that TVA’s got to approve something… hadn’t heard that anywhere…what is that they need to approve?”
“On the xAI stuff…I wasn’t aware…that TVA’s got to approve something… hadn’t heard that anywhere…what is that they need to approve?”
SELC citing MLGW board member Mitch Graves
SELC said McGowen negotiated this deal with xAI without oversight from his board or the city council. Doing so, the group said, is a violation of the charters of the council and the board.
”Proper review by the MLGW board and city council is essential because MLGW faces significant operational constraints that directly affect the Memphis coalition’s members’ access to electricity,” the letter said. ”MLGW must give the MLGW board and city council their charter-given right to evaluate whether it is in the best interest of MLGW ratepayers to subsidize millions of dollars of infrastructure investment in xAI over the next two years, while at the same time struggling to keep the lights on and provide accurate billing statements to residential customers.
”The TVA board should not consider the pending request until MLGW obtains required local approvals.”
Elon Musk. Photo by Trevor Cokley / Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
(This story was originally published by The Institute for Public Service Reporting Memphis.)
Is Memphis moving too fast in its negotiations with Elon Musk?
The question troubles environmentalists like Sarah Houston as Musk fast-tracks plans to open an energy-intensive xAI supercomputer here later this summer.
“Data centers like this come with a lot of questions,’’ said Houston, executive director of the nonprofit group Protect Our Aquifer. Houston and others are concerned about xAI’s impact on Memphis’ resources.
The artificial intelligence plant already under development in southwest Memphis will require enough electricity to power 100,000 homes and consume up to 1.5 million gallons of water a day to cool equipment.
Negotiations between Musk, the Greater Memphis Chamber, and city-owned Memphis Light, Gas & Water have moved swiftly and behind closed doors since the tech billionaire and his team first approached local officials in March.
Supporters view xAI as a catalyst for Memphis to become a technology hub that could infuse hundreds of new jobs and millions of investment dollars into the local economy. That includes the potential for other Musk-owned businesses to set up shop here.
But a litany of questions has unfolded about xAI’s energy use and environmental impact since negotiations became public last month. In response, Musk’s swiftly evolving plans have incorporated measures to allay those concerns.
Among them is a plan to build a 150-megawatt substation to reduce the chance of any future power brownouts or blackouts. Talks also are underway to build a gray water facility that would use treated wastewater rather than precious drinking water to cool xAI’s equipment.
Still, critics say the discussions spearheaded by the chamber and MLGW are proceeding with too little public input.
“This is a terrible idea for Memphis. MLGW’s CEO is not elected, and neither is anybody in the Chamber of Commerce last time I checked,” said state Rep. Justin J. Pearson, D-Memphis, whose district includes the industrial swath of land where xAI is located. “It’d be really wonderful if people who are unelected did start to talk to people who are elected to represent the communities that they’re seeking to do business in, because they would have heard from our community that we don’t want this.”
Environmentalists urge caution. They point to Texas, where two Musk-founded companies received wide criticism in 2022 for proposing to dump treated wastewater into Texas’ Colorado River.
“It’s just like, they need to be forced to do the right thing,’’ said Chap Ambrose, a Texas computer programmer and environmental activist who lives next door to two Musk-owned companies, SpaceX and Boring.
Knoxville-based activist Stephen Smith, who is no fan of Musk, says he sees a huge opportunity for Memphis if it takes the time to carefully structure this deal. That includes holding Musk, best known for development of Tesla electric vehicles and rocket manufacturer SpaceX, accountable to the public.
“The negatives could very well turn into positives,’’ said Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy.
Water concerns
Water falling at Sheahan Water Pumping Station in December 2023. (Karen Pulfer Focht)
The announcement of xAi immediately triggered concerns about Memphis’ drinking water — sourced directly from the Memphis Sand Aquifer, which contains some 57 trillion gallons of millennia old, pristine water, a point of civic pride and the envy of many other cities.
There’s little chance of depleting that.
Even if xAI requires 1.5 million gallons of water a day — MLGW’s highest estimate —that would add only 1% to the city’s total daily draw on the aquifer.
“I’m not concerned with the quantity, I’m concerned with the quality,’’ said Daniel Larson, director of the University of Memphis’ Center for Applied Earth Science and Engineering Research or CAESER.
Larson and others say a more realistic concern is that xAI’s demand for water could accelerate contamination of the Memphis Sand Aquifer.
The proposed xAI center would draw water from the Davis Wellfield in southwest Memphis, an industrial area that includes TVA’s Allen power plant and the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
CAESER studies have found large quantities of arsenic in the shallow aquifer above the Davis Wellfield. Studies also have identified cracks or breaches in the thick layer of clay separating the shallow and larger Memphis Sand aquifers.
“With an increased demand of one million or 1.3 million gallons of draw down, the question becomes what happens to the known contaminates just above our drinking water, like arsenic?’’ said Protect Our Aquifer’s Houston.
The greater risk of contamination could be alleviated by development of a gray water system that would use treated wastewater, rather than water from the aquifer, to cool xAI’s equipment.
MLGW is developing plans to build a gray water treatment facility to serve xAI and other industrial customers. Musk and his team are considering building their own gray water system, possibly by January, according to The Daily Memphian.
Amanda Garcia, a lead attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, remains skeptical. “I’m concerned about a lack of commitment on the part of xAI in their use of reclaimed water,” she said. “We’ve seen other industrial users come in and say, ‘Oh, we’re going to use reclaimed water,’ and then back out of that commitment.”
Deficient Community Outreach
The former Electrolux plant at 3231 Paul R. Lowry Road where Musk is developing his xAI “gigafactory of compute”. (Karen Pulfer Focht)
Garcia’s concerns highlight a disconnect between xAI and the larger Memphis public. Companies that move to Memphis often forgo direct communication with neighborhoods surrounding their operations, and xAI is no exception.
To date, representatives with xAI have not held any townhall-style meetings with their neighboring communities. Media also cannot reach xAI directly. The company told the Memphis Chamber of Commerce that reporters can post their questions on X.
No representative responded to the Institute for Public Service’s questions posted on the public social media platform.
The lack of direct access means Memphians must learn about xAI through MLGW updates or an anonymous source that works exclusively with The Daily Memphian, which posts many of their xAI updates behind a paywall.
Houston said it would be up to organizations like Protect Our Aquifer to sustain pressure on xAI and Memphis officials to “keep the community informed and engaged on how we can truly ensure that this company follows through on a lot of really great things they said in the media. Because that’s not the track record the ownership (of xAI) has shown in the past.”
State Rep. Justin J. Pearson in southwest Memphis in March 2023. (Karen Pulfer Focht)
State representative Pearson says Musk can’t be trusted. He’s equally skeptical of local decision-makers securing the xAI deal, saying they haven’t given residents of Southwest Memphis — an area already disproportionately burdened by industrial pollutants — much thought.
“Our resources are continuously extracted for the benefit of companies. And our community is not feeling any of those benefits,” Pearson said.
Checkered record
Critics’ concerns include the checkered environmental history of Musk companies in other parts of the country.
Business Insider reported earlier this year that Tesla’s “gigafactory” in Austin took advantage of a new Texas law that allowed the company to exempt itself from the city’s environmental regulations. While Musk promised an “ecological paradise” when Tesla first moved to town, the company appears to be free to skirt regulations meant to ensure one.
Two other Musk-founded companies received an outpouring of criticism last year for attempting to dump treated wastewater into Texas’ Colorado River, which flows southeast through the state, into the Gulf of Mexico, and is separate from the Colorado River that drains the southwestern United States.
When Chap Ambrose, a computer programmer, watched The Boring Company slowly come to life in the cow pasture across the way from his house in the rural countryside east of Austin, he was initially excited.
He was a fan of Musk. He signed up for the yet-to-be released Cyber Truck and subscribed to the Musk-founded Starlink internet service. That was in 2021.
Today, Ambrose serves as an informal watchdog over The Boring Company. The company specializes in building underground tunnel infrastructure meant to alleviate surface-level traffic, among other functions.
Ambrose and some of his neighbors took issue with The Boring Company and another nearby, Musk-founded company, Space Exploration Technologies Corp., attempting to dump treated wastewater in the Texas Colorado River.
The Boring Company had applied for a permit to treat wastewater and release it onto its land or into the river, the Washington Post reported. The firm planned to build its own wastewater treatment plant without connecting to a treatment system run by the nearby city of Bastrop, The Post reported. Under public pressure it reportedly later dropped the plan and agreed to connect to the city system.
Monitoring the two companies is tedious, Ambrose said. “(It) continues to be an exercise of documenting and learning how these things work and how the regulations are split up across half a dozen different agencies. [You learn] who you have to talk to, where and what they care about, and what other people care about,” he said.
Following a series of complaints, the company received its first fine earlier this year from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, just under $12,000 for ineffective erosion control at construction sites and illegal dumping of storm water.
Ambrose’s advice for Memphians concerned about xAI’s potential impacts in Southwest Memphis is simple.
“Learn what will be cheap and easy for xAI, and what regulations stand in the way,” said Ambrose. “That will give you a start.”
Megapacks
Doug McGowen, president and CEO of MLGW, told members of the Memphis City Council on July 9 that xAI plans to build a 150 megawatt substation.
McGowen’s update included another way that xAI would impact Memphis’ occasionally strained power grid: Megapacks — a proprietary development by Tesla. Megapacks are shipping container-sized battery packs.
The Tesla dealership on Germantown Parkway near Wolfchase Galleria (Marc Perrusquia)
The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy’s Smith said the use of Megapacks would ease concerns about the need for brownouts.
“With the battery packs, they have developed this software that seamlessly integrates into the electric grid. You can charge those battery packs up at night or off-peak times, and then you can deploy them over an extended period of time during peak,” Smith said.
Megapacks could significantly reduce the strain on MLGW’s system during times of peak demand. And, from Smith’s view, a commitment from xAI to enhance the power grid’s capabilities could ultimately help MLGW break up with the Tennessee Valley Authority, which would be the biggest benefit possible with xAI, he said.
For myriad reasons, Smith has long advocated for MLGW to leave TVA. TVA produces the electricity that MLGW buys and distributes. Smith says TVA is the biggest obstacle to investing in renewable sources of energy in the southeast region.
“xAI has the potential to breakthrough a lot of antiquated thinking,’’ Smith said.
“If the mayor, if Doug McGowen, if city council say, ‘Welcome to our community. Yes, we want you to figure out a way for it to work for both on the water and the energy side and be a sustainable leader. But we also want to partner with you to think bigger about what is possible in Memphis.’”
On July 22, Musk posted on X the xAI supercomputer powered up, and training with supporting employees had begun.
So, I go on vacation for two weeks and Memphis lands a deal with Elon Musk — “the world’s richest man” — to build the largest supercomputer in the world in the former Electrolux plant. What?
From a BnB in upstate New York last week, I read a well-reported (if slightly breathless) story in the Daily Memphian, wherein reporter Sophia Surrett told the behind-the-scenes chronicle of how the Greater Memphis Chamber, led by CEO Ted Townsend, managed to convince Musk to bring his multi-billion-dollar project to the Bluff City. Selling points included our city’s ample water supply, cheap land costs, and the chamber’s willingness to work fast. Memphis was pitched in a zoom meeting with Musk and his associates in March, while Townsend was in Austin for SXSW. Musk apparently liked what he heard and over the next three months, the deal was consummated.
If things go according to plan, the former Electrolux facility will soon house a tech startup called xAI and will, according to an unnamed source in the Daily Memphian story, create “less than 200 jobs.” It will use approximately 1 million gallons of water per day, about 1 percent of the city’s current daily use. In addition, xAI will need up to 150 megawatts of electricity to run the facility — enough energy to power 100,000 homes.
Local environmental groups, including Protect Our Aquifer, issued a cautionary statement: “Before we welcome xAI with open arms, we must consider how an industry using such a tremendous amount of electricity will further impact communities already overwhelmed with pollution and a high energy burden, such as those around the xAI facility in Southwest Memphis. … Will xAI bear the cost of TVA’s fuel adjustment fee in times of high energy demand? … With our recent history of severe weather events and rolling blackouts, TVA and Memphis Light, Gas & Water must work closely with this facility to keep energy use off peak-demand hours. … During times of emergency, our utility providers must have a plan to ensure that residents receive the power and water they need ahead of corporate demand.”
Good points, all. There is some talk that xAI will get involved in building a system that will use wastewater or river water to handle its cooling needs, but it’s just talk at this point. However it goes, this appears to be a big deal. And Musk is a big deal, a guy who sends Space X rockets and Starlink satellites into space, builds futuristic Tesla cars (and goofy trucks), and owns X (formerly Twitter), the world’s largest news and social-messaging platform.
But that raises — or should — another concern: Musk, who says that he has Asperger’s Syndrome, has configured X’s algorithm to ensure that his voice is the most prominent on the platform, meaning he has 187 million followers who can see his posts. He is a mega-influencer.
He’s also an anti-vaxxer who recently posted a photo of Dr. Anthony Fauci under the caption: “You’re all beagles to me. Crimes Against Humanity.” Additionally, Musk is anti-trans, anti-DEI, pro-Trump, pro-Tucker Carlson, anti-Ukraine, pro-Russia, and has retweeted the “scientific” graphs of @eyeslasho, which claim to prove that “Black people in the US are overwhelmingly more criminally violent than whites.” Not a great look for a CEO looking to set up in a majority Black city. Musk has also retweeted some blatantly anti-semitic X posts. A real peach, this guy.
To put this in some sort of context, however strained, there is little doubt that other business and corporate leaders — in Memphis and elsewhere — share some of Musk’s beliefs and politics. The general attitude of those looking to expand their city’s economic base, i.e. political leaders and business types like those in the Greater Chamber, is to downplay (or ignore) such things as long as the greater good — jobs, investment, and a bump for the city’s reputation — is achieved. CEOs gonna CEO, the thinking goes.
By that measure, it appears that Memphis has landed a big fish, one that will maybe bring a few more fish in its wake and provide more good-paying jobs than the 200 initially surmised. But the bottom line on the xAI deal is yet to be determined. And how — or if — this transaction will benefit the Memphis economy or the average Memphian is unknown. Musk is a wild card, given to mercurial, offensive, and impulsive moves. Call him the X factor.
