xAI adds 19 new gas turbines despite ongoing lawsuit

XAI added 19 natural gas turbines to its second data center campus in Southaven, Mississippi, over the past two months, according to internal emails viewed by WIRED.

The additions come as xAI fights a lawsuit from the NAACP and several environmental groups, alleging that the company is violating the Clean Air Act by operating more than two dozen natural gas turbines at the site without proper air permits.

Emails between a Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality official and a representative from Trinity Consultants, obtained through a public records request by the Southern Environmental Law Center and shared with WIRED, show that xAI installed 19 portable gas turbines at its Southaven site between late March and early May. This brings the total number to 46 turbines operating at the site.

The spreadsheet included in the email to MDEQ has a column titled “Total Energy Production” that appears to list the megawatt capacity of each turbine on the site. xAI appears to have added more than 500 megawatts of natural gas turbines since mid-March.

Burning natural gas can release emissions that lead to global warming and worsen air quality. Officials at MDEQ and xAI did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment. The new turbine additions to the site were called Colossus 2 Reported for the first time by Mississippi Today.

“As demonstrated at the facility, all portable/temporary turbines are equipped with control technology to minimize emissions,” agency spokesman Jan Schäfer said. Mississippi Today. “MDEQ is evaluating the situation and will inform the facility when it will no longer be able to bring additional portable/temporary turbines to the site.”

In April, the NAACP, along with SELC and Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit against xAI, alleging that the company was operating a “personal power plant” in Southaven by operating 27 gas turbines without the necessary permits. Ben Grillot, an attorney with SELC, says the organization noticed six additional turbines at the site during a drone flyby in April. Only after receiving emails from MDEQ did the team realize there were 19 new turbines. According to email dates seen by WIRED, eight of the 19 new turbines, representing more than 200 megawatts of production, were installed after the lawsuit was filed.

xAI’s original site, Colossus 1, located just over the state border in Memphis, Tennessee, received widespread criticism in 2024 after locals claimed that gas turbines at that site were being operated without a permit. Colossus 1 is located in Boxtown, a historically black neighborhood that has long had problems with poor air quality.

Regulators in both Tennessee and Mississippi said that because the XAI turbines are not stationary, they have a year to operate them without permits under the Clean Air Act. Last July, the local health department in Memphis Granting a permit for turbines at the Colossus 1 site, despite strong opposition from the community. In March, in the face of similar community protests, the MDEQ movement arose Granted Air permit for Southaven site to operate 41 gas turbines. (SELC says the 27 turbines in the lawsuit and those added to the site in recent months are not part of that permit. Neither xAI nor MDEQ responded to WIRED’s questions about whether the turbines listed in the emails were covered by the aerial permit granted in March.) Drone footage and public records. Obtained by the news agency lamp Multiple turbines at the site were found to have been operating in the weeks before MDEQ granted the permit.