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xAI added 19 gas turbines at its second data campus in Southhaven, Mississippi, over the past two months, according to internal emails seen by WIRED.
The addition comes as xAI is fighting a lawsuit from the NAACP and several environmental groups, alleging that the company is violating the Clean Air Act by operating more than two natural gas plants at the site without proper air permits.
Emails between the head of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Protection 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 gas turbines at its Southaven facility between late March and early May. This brings the total to 46 turbines operating at the site.
The spreadsheet included in the email to the MDEQ, has a section labeled “Total Power Output” that appears to list the megawatt capacity of each turbine on the site. xAI appears to have added more than 500 megawatts of renewable energy since mid-March.
Gas burning can release greenhouse gases and pollute the air quality. MDEQ and xAI officials did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment. The addition of the new turbines at the site, called Colossus 2, was first report in Mississippi Today.
“As this building demonstrates, all mobile/temporary turbines have control technology to reduce emissions,” agency spokesman Jan Schaefer said. Mississippi Today. “MDEQ is reviewing the situation and will notify the site that they will no longer be bringing temporary turbines to the site.”
In April, the NAACP, along with SELC and Earthjustice, filed a lawsuit against xAI, alleging that the company has been operating an “energy center” in Southaven using 27 gas turbines without the necessary permits. Ben Grillot, an attorney with SELC, says the agency saw six more turbines at the site during a drone flyover in April. It wasn’t until they received the MDEQ emails that the group realized there were 19 new turbines. According to email dates seen by WIRED, eight of the 19 new turbines, representing more than 200 megawatts, were installed after the lawsuit was filed.
xAI’s original site, Colossus 1, located across the state border in Memphis, Tennessee, came under fire in 2024 after local residents claimed the gas turbines at the site were operated without permission. Colossus 1 is located in Boxtown, a former Black neighborhood that has suffered from air pollution.
Regulators in Tennessee and Mississippi have said that because the xAI turbines are stationary, they have a year to operate them without permits under the Clean Air Act. Last July, the Memphis Department of Health was granted permission for the turbines at the Colossus 1 site, despite strong opposition from the community. In March, they are facing the same public outcry, MDEQ given gas permit for the Southaven facility to operate 41 gas units. (SELC says the 27 turbines in its lawsuit and those added to the site in recent months are not part of this permit. Neither xAI nor MDEQ responded to WIRED’s questions about whether the turbines in the emails are covered by the air permit issued in March.) Drone images are public records. findings and news A flood show that several turbines at the site were operating several weeks before the MDEQ issued the permit.
