Memphis residents at war with Elon Musk: The ‘world’s biggest supercomputer’ is causing pollution problems
Boxtown is once again struggling to get a nearby industry to clean up its act. This time it is xAI, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company.
What has been hailed as “game changing” for the local community by Mayor Paul Young is being decried as another major polluter by the residents who live a short distance away. Last summer, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, installed the world’s largest supercomputer ‘Colossus’ in an abandoned factory southwest of Memphis, Tennessee.
In order to help power the roughly 200,000 graphics processing units housed in the facility about the size of the 13 football fields, xAI brought in some methane gas turbines to generate electricity. But residents and community leaders say that xAI is running these generators, that spew out a cocktail of pollutants, without having the necessary permits
Boxtown choking on pollution from Musk’s xAI Colossus supercomputer
Boxtown is located about two miles to the east of xAI’s Colossus supercomputer and the methane gas turbines. Musk’s company used a loophole that allows them to run temporary turbines for one year, but environmental groups say that exemption does not apply in this case.
xAI applied for a permit to run 15 turbines permanently in January, but in April environmental activists took ariel photos which showed that there were 35 turbines, and all but two had a heat signature indicating that they were operating. This greatly upset residents who packed a meeting to challenge xAI getting its permit approved and to vent their anger.
That number of turbines would give the xAI facility a combined capacity of 422MW, according to the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC). That is just a little less generating capacity than a Tennessee Valley Authority’s gas power plant operating nearby.
The cluster of turbines can also produce as much as 2,000 tons of nitrogen oxide, a key component of ozone pollution or smog, every year. That would make the xAI facility one of the biggest polluters in the nation.
The manufacturer of the turbines say that they also emit formaldehyde, a known carcinogen, along with other pollutants including tiny particles that can enter the bloodstream through the lungs.
Elon Musk is not the first big polluter to set up shop
Residents of Boxtown, a majority Black community where the median income is $37,000, and the rest of southwest Memphis have a long history of dealing with polluting industries.
“They always come to southwest Memphis. They always come to what they believe is the path of least resistance,” KeShaun Pearson, president of Memphis Community Against Pollution told NBC News. He calls the area a “sacrifice zone.”
The American Lung Association recently gave the area an ‘F’ for its air quality. Southwest Memphis has a cancer risk over four times the national average and life expectancy in the area is 9 years less than the rest of the nation.
xAI has said that it will generate hundreds of jobs and millions in tax revenue, which the mayor says will be reinvested in the community, including to tackle indoor air pollution. However, Pearson doesn’t think that this will compensate for the health impacts residents are experiencing now.
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