The nation's oldest civil rights organization is taking Elon Musk's xAI to court, arguing the SpaceX subsidiary is illegally spewing toxins that could harm communities near Memphis. The NAACP on Tuesday sued xAI and its subsidiary MZX Tech, accusing them of running dozens of natural gas turbines to power its Colossus 2 data center in South Memphis without the required federal air permit and in violation of the Clean Air Act. Filed in federal court in Mississippi, per CNBC, the complaint says 27 turbines have been operating since 2025 at the Colossus Gas Plant in the Memphis suburb of Southaven, emitting smog-forming pollution, fine particulate matter, and formaldehyde, which the group links to cancers, heart issues, and respiratory diseases.
The NAACP wants a judge to order xAI to shut the plant until it secures proper permits, install pollution controls, and pay daily civil penalties. The group, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center and Earthjustice, also asks Mississippi regulators to yank a March permit for a larger, 41-turbine permanent plant tied to xAI's expanding Memphis-area data hub, around which the suit notes a disproportionately Black population lives. "A data center should not be a potential death sentence for a community's health," says the NAACP' Abre' Conner. xAI has argued the turbines are temporary and do not need a federal permit. In a new statement, per the Guardian, it says "the temporary power generation units are operating in compliance with all applicable laws."
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