Activists in Memphis are sounding the alarm over the Colossus data center, operated by Elon Musk’s xAI, arguing that its gas turbines are putting the health of nearby residents—largely Black families—at risk. The complaint, filed by the NAACP and the Southern Environmental Law Center, accuses xAI of running the massive facility “outside of EPA regulations, worsening the air in a mostly-Black neighborhood.” Long-standing environmental issues in Memphis have harmed its majority Black population, and the Colossus plant is said to emit far more pollutants than regulations permit for its size.
Since June 2024, Colossus has powered xAI’s chatbot Grok through methane-burning turbines, sometimes numbering up to 35, and all remain unpermitted. “All too often, big corporations like xAI treat our communities and families like obstacles to be pushed aside,” warns NAACP President Derrick Johnson. The NAACP states xAI’s operation is “making a bad situation worse for the neighborhood’s Black residents.”
Patrick Anderson, senior attorney with SELC, underscores that Memphis’s predominantly Black neighborhoods overlap significantly with areas of heavy pollution. He points out the region already suffers from numerous industrial emitters, including a refinery and major power plants. “Musk is looking at the entire country, and he picks an area for Colossus that has already degraded air quality, and he plops it down amongst all these other emitters in a majority black part of town… Those are just the facts,” Anderson states.
See: “Colossal Polluter: NAACP Moves to Sue Musk in Memphis” (June 23, 2025)
