People who live near xAI’s dirty data centers are angry about SpaceX’s IPO

SpaceX and Elon Musk That giant company Launches missiles And he runs Data centersHe is It is scheduled to become public on Friday with a higher target valuation of $1.75 trillion. This move will make Musk, indeed The richest man in the worldconsiderably richer.

SpaceX’s IPO would allow this Collect more money to Funding its ambitions in the field of artificial intelligenceincluding building more data centers faster.

Even like musk and others SpaceX Investors are seeing a huge windfall, and the community that hosts XAI’s already operational data centers is demanding accountability for the company’s use of polluting gas turbines and a water treatment facility that was temporarily shut down earlier this year.

“We are the exploited and exploited colony of what will become one of the most valuable entities in the world,” says Justin Pearson, who represents parts of Memphis in the Tennessee House of Representatives. “People will die because of this pollution.”

XAI is Selling $15 billion annually in computing at its Memphis campus for Anthropic, another company Planning a massive IPO In the coming months. “People don’t care about SpaceX, or Anthropic, or whoever is building these data centers,” Pearson says.

President Donald Trump has suggested that the US government might take a financial stake in frontier AI companies in order to start “giving back” to the American people. But it is unclear what form this might take, or whether such a move will happen.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment and Anthropic declined to comment, though its public policy chief and the mayor of Memphis said so. Promote company engagement With the city.

xAI’s Colossus 1 campus in Memphis gained national notoriety in 2024 when community members began sounding the alarm that the company was operating natural gas turbines without permits. Regulators said a loophole in the Clean Air Act allowed XAI to operate What appeared The number of turbines will be 35 without a permit for a year. (Last year, local regulators Give xAI a pass To operate 15 turbines at the site until 2027.)

Natural gas turbines emit microscopic particles of fine particulate matter, called PM2.5, which are associated with A variety of health issuesincluding heart attacks, high blood pressure, and premature deaths in people with pre-existing conditions. Experts warning PM2.5 pollution can be harmful even below levels set by regulators.

xAI’s first data center was built in Boxtown, a historically black neighborhood in Memphis that already includes some… Highest asthma rates in the country From old industrial pollution.

“All of us who have family in South Memphis know someone who died from a bronchial disease, or a random cancer that had no place in our family tree,” says Richard Massey, a community organizer in Memphis.

The EPA issued guidance in January that appeared to close the Clean Air Act loophole that xAI had been using to operate its turbines without permits. However, the company has already begun construction of unlicensed turbines in Southaven, Mississippi, to power Colossus 2. As of mid-May, the company has brought in at least 46 unlicensed gas turbines for on-site operation, according to emails xAI sent to regulators.

A group of environmental justice groups, led by the NAACP, filed a lawsuit earlier this year against XAI, alleging that the company installed the gas turbines “without an air permit or consideration for the health and safety of people living nearby.” Earlier this week, Southaven residents filed a separate class action lawsuit against xAI and SpaceX, alleging that construction of the data center was disruptive to the community.