Why a Memphis Community Is Fighting Elon Musk's Supercomputer

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A New York Times article reports on community opposition to Elon Musk's xAI supercomputer facility in southwest Memphis, Tennessee. The facility, powered by mobile natural gas plants, is located in an already-polluted industrial area and residents contend it has worsened air quality. KeShaun Pearson, president of Memphis Community Against Pollution, expresses concern about increasing unhealthy air days.

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Elon Musk, the world's richest man, is building what he says will be the world's largest supercomputer. Its electricity needs will rival those of 100,000 homes.

The supercomputer's neighbors in southwest Memphis have a problem with that.

The project, part of Mr. Musk's xAI artificial intelligence business, sits in an old manufacturing plant on more than 550 acres. Before beginning operations there in July, xAI rolled in flatbed trucks loaded with almost 20 mobile power plants, fueled by natural gas, to help meet its electricity demands.

Residents of the heavily industrial community — already home to an oil refinery, a steel mill and chemical plants — see no upside. They contend that Mr. Musk's project has made pollution worse in an area already enveloped in smog.

"We're getting more and more days a year where it is unhealthy for us to go outside," said KeShaun Pearson, president of Memphis Community Against Pollution and a lifelong resident of the area near the xAI site.

The xAI supercomputer center in Memphis is being built at the site of a former appliance factory.

The center is to be used to train artificial intelligence models on thousands of powerful computer servers.

So far, xAI is using the Memphis facility to develop its artificial intelligence models on a network of thousands of high-powered computer servers. Some of its models are trained on data from Mr. Musk's social media platform, X.