• “I can’t breathe at home, it smells like gas outside,” she [Alexis Humphreys, 27] said, about the existing pollution in the area.
• Last month, the county received an “F” from the American Lung Association for its air quality.

Link: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/musk-xai-colossus-supercomputer-boxtown-memphis-tennessee-rcna206242

• The xAI turbines are leading to a public health crisis in Memphis by releasing nitrogen oxides—pollutants known to directly harm the lungs.
• Instead, they [data centers] were placed in the backyard of a historically Black, underserved neighborhood, reinforcing a long legacy of environmental racism in Memphis — and our country.
• Gas turbines release smog-forming pollution and hazardous chemicals like formaldehyde—which are tied to increases in asthma, respiratory diseases, heart problems, and certain cancers.

Link: https://time.com/7308925/elon-musk-memphis-ai-data-center/

• The NAACP [...] says xAI has been polluting areas with homes, schools and churches, including in historically Black communities, by using dozens of methane gas generators without permits.
• “By looking to evade clear air laws to operate dirty turbines that emit pollution and known carcinogens, these companies are following a shameful, familiar pattern: asking Black and frontline communities to bear the toxic brunt of ‘innovation’.”
• The [...] lawsuit alleges xAI illegally installed and operated up to 27 gas turbines, each one the size of a large bus, to power its datacenter in Southaven.

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/apr/14/naacp-lawsuit-elon-musk-xai-memphis

• A small, primarily Black community in Memphis is fighting back against tech giant Elon Musk
• He [Musk] settled on Boxtown, Memphis, a 90% Black working-class neighborhood first settled by formerly enslaved people in 1863, to construct his supercomputer facility, Colossus, in 2024.
• The facility’s turbines “increase Memphis’s smog by 30-60%” as they “belch planet-warming nitrogen oxides and poisonous formaldehyde," pollutants linked to “respiratory and cardiovascular disease.”
• The xAI turbines are “leading to a public health crisis in Memphis by releasing nitrogen oxides — pollutants known to directly harm the lungs,”

Link: https://archive.is/63gKg

• Elon Musk’s xAI for allegedly skirting permits and running gas turbines that are spewing formaldehyde and smog‑forming pollution into Black communities
• The neighborhoods around these facilities already have a cancer risk that is four times the national average.
• [...] billion-dollar companies set up polluting operations in Black neighborhoods without any permits and think they'll get away with it [...]

Link: https://capitalbnews.org/elon-musk-xai-naacp-black-neighborhoods-pollution/

• [We (Anthropic) have] signed an agreement with [xAI's parent company] SpaceX to use all of the compute capacity at their Colossus 1 data center.

Link: https://www.anthropic.com/news/higher-limits-spacex#new-compute-partnership-with-spacex

• The lawsuit alleged that the company installed and operated a "Colossus Gas Plant" in Southaven which "emits significant amounts of harmful pollutants, including nitrogen oxides (“NOx”) and formaldehyde, which are tied to increases in asthma, respiratory diseases, heart problems, and certain cancers [...]".
• [...] data supplied by the manufacturer showing that "...xAI emits between 1,200 and 2,000 tons of smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx)..."
• Keshaun Pearson also stated that "We're getting more and more days a year where it is unhealthy for us to go outside."

Link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colossus_(data_center)