People Living Near xAI’s Dirty Place Are Furious About SpaceX IPO

SpaceX, Elon Musk’s a behemoth company launching a rocket and running data centerand is set to go public Friday is a debt of more than $ 1.75 trillion. This move makes Musk, stay the richest man in the worldvery rich.

The public offering will allow SpaceX to do so raise more money to grant his AI wishesincluding building a data center, fast.

But even Musk and others Images of SpaceX investors have seen a big blow, communities with xAI plants already in operation want to respond to the company’s use of polluted natural gas and water plants that have already been shut down this year.

Justin Pearson, who represents parts of Memphis in the Tennessee House of Representatives, said: “We are an exploited and exploited group that will become one of the most important corporations in the world. People will die from this pollution.”

xI is sales of $15 billion a year by taking its Memphis schools to Anthropic, another company making a blockbuster IPO in the coming months. “People have nothing to do with SpaceX, or Anthropic, or whoever is building this space,” says Pearson.

President Donald Trump has said the US government could take a financial step towards bordering AI companies to start “retaliating” against the American people. But it’s unclear how that would happen—or if such a move would ever happen.

SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment and Anthropic declined to comment, although its chief political officer and the mayor of Memphis declined to comment. He encouraged the company’s cooperation and the city.

xAI’s Colossus 1 campus in Memphis gained national attention in 2024 when the community began to report that the company was operating a gas plant without permits. Administrators said a loophole in the Clean Air Act allowed xAI to move what was seen being a total of 35 turbines without a permit for the year. (Last year, local regulators gave xAI a license (to operate 15 turbines at the site until 2027.)

Natural gas turbines emit fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, which is associated with variety of health careincluding heart disease, high blood pressure, and early death in people with pre-existing conditions. Professionals warn that PM2.5 pollution can be harmful even below the levels set by regulators.

xAI’s original location was built in Boxtown, a predominately black area of ​​Memphis High risk of asthma in the country from previous industrial damage.

“All of us who have family in South Memphis, we know someone who has died of bronchial asthma, or a random cancer that has no place in our family,” says Richard Massey, an organizer in Memphis.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued guidance in January that appeared to close the Clean Air Act loophole xAI used to operate its turbines without permits. However, the company had already begun installing illegal turbines in Southaven, Mississippi, to power Colossus 2. By mid-May, the company had brought at least 46 illegal gas stations running on the site, according to xAI emails sent to administrators.

A group of environmental justice organizations, led by the NAACP, sued xAI earlier this year, saying the company installed the gas turbines “without an air permit or concern for the health and safety of nearby residents.” Earlier this week, Southaven residents filed a separate lawsuit against xAI and SpaceX, saying the construction of the data center would disrupt the community.