Elon Musk's xAI erected 27 unpermitted gas turbines in a Black Mississippi neighborhood to feed its Colossus data center. The Trump DOJ just moved to dismiss the lawsuit trying to stop it, citing national security.
There's a power grab happening in America, and it isn't the kind that makes the front page. Across the country, Big Tech companies are quietly building off-grid natural gas power plants next to their AI data centers, bypassing the environmental reviews and public comment periods that govern every other major industrial project. And when communities push back, they're now learning the federal government may not be on their side.
The starkest example is in Southaven, Mississippi, just south of Memphis. Elon Musk's xAI installed 27 trailer-mounted gas turbines at a site there without ever obtaining an air permit, creating a de facto 495-megawatt power station to feed its Colossus 2 data center. No permits, no community notice, no public hearings. Memphis had already been ranked an
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