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Due to those purported national security interests, DOJ lawyers have joined xAI and the state of Missisippi in requesting that the lawsuit be dismissed.
The NAACP, through the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), sued xAI last year after an investigation discovered that Musk’s Colossus supercomputer facility used “illegal” generators to power its AI GPUs . The Memphis supercluster was launched in just 19 days — a major feat given that most projects of this scale usually take four years, according to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
The site officially powered on in July 2024 , but it wasn’t May 2025 that it became fully operational after it received 150MW of power from Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MLGW) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). But instead of waiting months to get connected to the grid, xAI bridged the gap with mobile generators to get the electricity needed to run the hundreds of thousands of power-hungry GPUs.
It turns out that xAI failed to secure the permits needed to run the majority of these units. It’s been reported that the company applied for 15 portable turbines, but thermal images show at least 35 units on site . The company is allegedly using a loophole that allows it to run these units for 364 days without needing paperwork, but the Environmental Protect Agency (EPA) has since closed this loophole .
Jury throws out Elon Musk's lawsuit against OpenAI after less than two hours of deliberation
U.S. gov't orders Anthropic to disable its newest AI models worldwide due to security threats
Google, Microsoft, and xAI agree to let US government test AI models before public release
Aside from the offending generators in the first Colossus site, which is rented out to Anthropic , 27 natural gas turbines at Colossus 2 were cited as noncompliant in the initial lawsuit filed in April 2026.
However, as of May 2026, the SELC says that 57 turbines on the site are operating on site without a permit. According to the nonprofit, this resulted in a 111% increase in nitrogen oxide exhaust, an 83% jump in PM2.5 pollutants, and an 88% uptick in formaldehyde emissions since these generators were added. The lawsuit argues that these emissions endanger public health, and that continued use of the turbines “increases risks of asthma attacks and heart disease” in the surrounding communities.
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/big-tech/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/big-tech/u-s-govt-asks-court-to-dismiss-naacp-lawsuit-against-elon-musks-xai-over-use-of-unpermitted-gas-turbines-doj-says-grok-model-running-at-colossus-2-supports-mission-critical-operations#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
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