added xAI In the last two months, 19 natural gas turbines were installed at the data center’s second campus in Southhaven, Mississippi, according to internal emails seen by WIRED.
The additions come as xAI is fighting a lawsuit filed by the NAACP and several environmental groups alleging that the company violated the Spotless Air Act by operating more than two dozen natural gas turbines in the area without proper air permits.
Emails between a Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality official and a representative from Trinity Consultants, obtained through a request from the Southern Environmental Law Center and shared with WIRED, show that xAI installed 19 portable gas turbines at its Southaven property between overdue March and early May. This gives a total of 46 turbines operating on site.
The spreadsheet included in the email sent to MDEQ includes a column titled “Total Power Output,” which lists the megawatts of power for each turbine on site. It appears that xAI has added over 500 megawatts of natural gas turbines since mid-March.
Burning natural gas can emit planet-warming gases and degrade air quality. MDEQ and xAI officials did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment. Novel turbines have been added to the facility, called Colossus 2 first reported by Mississippi Today.
“As the facility has indicated, all portable/temporary turbines are equipped with control technology to minimize emissions,” agency spokesman Jan Schaefer told Mississippi Today. “MDEQ is assessing the situation and will inform the utility when it can no longer 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 operated a “personal power plant” in Southaven by running 27 gas turbines without the necessary permits. Ben Grillot, a lawyer with SELC, says the organization spotted six additional turbines at the site during an April drone flyover. Only after receiving MDEQ emails did the team realize there were 19 up-to-date turbines. According to dates included in the email obtained by WIRED, eight of the 19 up-to-date turbines with a capacity of more than 200 megawatts were installed after the lawsuit was filed.
xAI’s original site, Colossus 1, located across the state line in Memphis, Tennessee, faced widespread criticism in 2024 after locals alleged that gas turbines at the site were operating without a permit. Colossus 1 is located in Boxtown, a historically black neighborhood that has long struggled with indigent air quality.
Regulators in Tennessee and Mississippi said that because xAI’s turbines are not stationary, the company has one year to operate them without permits under the Spotless Air Act. Last July, the local health department in Memphis issued a permit to build the turbines at Colossus 1, despite intense community opposition. In March, facing similar community outrage, MDEQ given air permit for the Southaven plant to operate 41 gas turbines. (SELC says the 27 turbines included in the lawsuit and those added to the site in recent months are not covered by this permit. Neither xAI nor MDEQ responded to WIRED’s questions about whether the turbines mentioned in the emails are covered by the flight permit issued in March.) Drone footage and public records obtained by Floodlight news service show that multiple turbines were operating at the site in the weeks before MDEQ issued the permit.