Elon Musk’s Memphis AI facility under fire for polluting Black neighborhood

MEMPHIS, Tenn.–In Boxtown — a historic Black community in South Memphis — residents are being forced to inhale a future they never asked for. In the shadow of a massive supercomputer project, Elon Musk’s company xAI quietly installed 35 methane-burning gas turbines in Boxtown — a neighborhood already burdened by a long, painful history of environmental abuse.

The turbines power a data-hungry machine called Colossus, one of the most energy-intensive artificial intelligence projects in the country. And it’s operating without full Clean Air Act permits.

Thermal scans from the Southern Environmental Law Center contradict the city’s claim that only 15 turbines are running.

At least 33 appear to be active, emitting formaldehyde, nitrogen oxide, and other cancer-linked pollutants — directly into Memphis’ most vulnerable air. These chemicals are tied to asthma, heart disease, and cancer.

This part of Memphis, home to 17 other polluting facilities — including an oil refinery, steel plant and gas-fired power plant — is used to fighting for clean air.

Memphis residents had no say in Elon Musk ai facility

I drove through Boxtown Wednesday, May 21. At first glance, there didn’t appear to be visible smoke or exhaust rising from the xAI facility. It looked quiet — too quiet for something so dangerous.

But what is striking wasn’t what came out of the building. It was everything around it. The entire area is crowded with manufacturing plants, rail yards, and heavy industrial development. Layer after layer of industry, pressed up only a couple miles from Black homes and church lots.

What makes this worse is the speed and secrecy of it all. The entire facility was constructed in just 122 days. No public notice. No town hall. No chance for Boxtown residents to say no to another toxic neighbor. And critics say that’s by design. xAI exploited a regulatory loophole that allows companies to operate “temporary” generators without a permit — as long as they’re rotated or moved within 364 days.

So now, a multi-billion-dollar AI operation is polluting one of Memphis’ most overburdened communities with impunity.

The facility draws more than 421 megawatts of electricity — as much as a small city. It’s projected to use over five million gallons of water per day. Meanwhile, the people who live next to it are already fighting high asthma rates, cancer clusters, and decades of industrial runoff.

Boxtown isn’t new to resistance. This is the same neighborhood that helped defeat the Byhalia crude oil pipeline in 2021.

Back then, national attention helped shine a light on the pattern: environmental violence always shows up first where land is cheap — and where communities, often Black and low-income, lack the political power to fight back. Only this time, it’s dressed in the language of artificial intelligence and “progress.”

Memphis shows Ai is only as progressive as its creators

AI is being sold as the tool to fix humanity’s biggest problems. But the truth is, it can’t solve systemic injustice while operating from the same mindset that created it. Accountability and equity must be at the forefront of the industry. If they’re not, AI will only create new crises — accelerating inequality under the banner of innovation.

The same algorithms being trained inside Colossus to write code, model human speech, and shape the future of work are being powered by fossil fuels in a Black neighborhood that never had clean air to begin with.

This is a moral failure — of policy, of leadership, and of tech culture. State regulators looked the other way. Memphis leaders let it happen. And Elon Musk is building the future by dumping the cost of “progress” on the lungs of people who can’t afford to move away.

And it’s not just Memphis. Communities across the globe are now facing similar threats as the AI industry rapidly expands — often without regulation, consent, or care.

Community groups and environmental watchdogs are demanding immediate federal intervention. But given the current political climate — and Musk’s increasingly cozy relationship with U.S. officials and influence through projects like DOGE and Starlink — it’s unclear how far those demands will go. Still, residents are pushing for a stop-work order and a full public health impact review.

We have the tools to solve every problem humanity is facing. But we don’t get to call AI “intelligent” if it starts by harming the very people it claims to serve.