Emails between regulators and xAI’s consultants put most of the turbines in Southaven, Mississippi. Within five miles on the Tennessee side, about 94% of residents are Black.
Ervin Laws lives in Colonial Hills, a neighbourhood in Southaven, Mississippi, where residents say the turbines running around the clock sound like jet engines.
“I can’t do anything about it, because he’s got more money than me,” he told Reuters, meaning Elon Musk. The turbines in question, according to correspondence between regulators and xAI’s representatives, number 59, and none of them holds a federal clean air permit.
That figure, published on Tuesday, is roughly double what the company has publicly acknowledged. xAI said in January that it was running 27 unpermitted turbines for its Colossus 2 project, and has argued throughout that no permits are required.
The 💜 of EU techThe latest rumblings from the EU tech scene, a story from our wise ol' founder Boris, and some questionable AI art. It's free, every week, in your inbox. Sign up now!The geography matters, and it is easy to get wrong. Colossus 2, the data centre supporting Grok and xAI’s other systems, sits in Memphis, Tennessee.
