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Elon Musk's xAI Secures Permit To Burn Natural Gas For Grok Supercomputer In Memphis Amid Clean Air Act Lawsuit, Pollution Complaints

Benzinga·07/04/2025 04:07:47
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Elon Musk's artificial intelligence startup xAI has received official approval to operate natural gas-burning turbines at its Memphis-based supercomputer facility, despite community backlash and an ongoing lawsuit over air quality concerns.

What Happened: The Shelby County Health Department issued the permit on Wednesday, allowing xAI to operate 15 gas turbines at its Colossus data center, which powers the Grok AI model, reported CNBC.

The permit enforces emissions limits and testing requirements, with non-compliance penalties reaching $10,000 per day.

Local residents have protested the project for months, citing a strong odor and poor air quality that reportedly worsened after the turbines were activated. The NAACP, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, has filed a lawsuit against xAI, claiming the company violated the Clean Air Act.

See Also: Trump Says He'll Skip Trade Deals, Set Global Tariffs With A Letter: ‘Pay A 25% Tariff, Or 20%, Or 40 Or 50%'

Satellite images taken Tuesday reportedly show 24 turbines at the site, exceeding the permitted number. Previously, the site hosted as many as 35 turbines, with more than 15 operating at once, the report said.

Why It's Important: xAI's Memphis supercomputer is central to Musk's ambitions to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google's Gemini.

Earlier this week, it was announced that xAI has raised $10 billion in debt and equity.

The company is also reportedly in discussions to raise around $20 billion in equity funding, which could value it at over $120 billion, with some investors estimating its worth could reach as high as $200 billion.

Previously, Musk revealed that xAI plans to deploy 1 million GPUs near Memphis. Most of these GPUs will be sourced from Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), according to Gene Munster, with a smaller share coming from Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD).

Munster added that the total cost of acquiring these chips could range from $30 billion to $40 billion.

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Photo Courtesy: JRdes on Shuttertsock.com

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.