What do Tennesseans need to know about Colossus?
A data center is a physical facility that houses IT infrastructure for building, running and delivering applications and services. Elon Musk’s Colossus data center in Memphis, the biggest of its kind in the world, is drawing massive amounts of power every day, purportedly in order to power and “train” a new version of the Grok AI model. Grok is an AI assistant that completes tasks like answering questions, solving problems, generating images and brainstorming. Musk’s company, xAI, was created for the purpose of AI development and at its center is the powerful supercomputer, Colossus. This enormous computer could radically redefine AI. How radically? According to its mission statement, xAI claims to be “guided by our mission to advance our collective understanding of the universe.”
This was the deal. Colossus requires massive amounts of energy and water. In September 2024, the xAI supercomputer was launched in southwest Memphis. TVA agreed to supply 150 megawatts (MW) via the energy company Memphis Light Gas and Water (MLGW). This is enough electricity to power 100,000 homes. In return, xAI agreed to foot the bill for improvements on Memphis water quality and provide discounted Tesla Megapack battery storage to add stability to the grid.
MLGW is unable to meet the data center’s power needs until an upgrade is completed that will cost taxpayers $760,000. Meanwhile xAI is using mobile gas combustion generators, which the Southern Environmental Law Center says is illegal. xAI pledges to spend $24 million on a new substation, which will supply the data center with 150MW of power. xAI will get monthly rebates until they have recouped their cost and then MLGW will take ownership of the substation.
What are Memphis residents and organizations saying?
In the prior year, TVA cited the inability to keep up with power demands as their rationale for proposing additional methane gas plants. Groups are pointing to this as evidence that TVA is ill prepared to meet the needs of xAI’s data center.
Citizen rights groups and environmental organizations have raised concerns about the negative impact on air quality, water access, and grid stability in surrounding neighborhoods. KeShaun Pearson, president of Memphis Community Against Pollution, said: “The ongoing policy violence that allows xAI to continue the consistent damaging of our lungs in Southwest Memphis is immoral. We deserve clean air, not silent strangulation.”
Pearson further states the TVA board “must do its job to sustainably serve its community and study the environmental implications of giving xAI an additional 150MW of power in an already energy burdened and over-polluted community of people whose lives have been sacrificed for generations.”
In a letter to TVA, Amanda Garcia, senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, expressed alarm that the TVA board rubber stamped xAI’s request for power without studying the impact it will have on local communities. “Last year, TVA questioned power reliability and proposed a new dirty gas plant in South Memphis, and today Board members expressed concern about the impact large industrial energy users have on power bills across the Tennessee Valley. TVA should be prioritizing families over data centers like xAI.” The SELC letter further states: “It seems that over the next few years, ordinary MLGW ratepayers will be subsidizing millions of dollars in infrastructure investments required to serve xAI, both directly and through bill credits to xAI.”
According to the SELC, the deal with xAI should not have been garnered without the consent of the city council. DataCenterDynamics had previously reported (July 2024) that Memphis city councilors complained that they had been left in the dark about the details of the scheme. Council member, Rhonda Logan, was quoted as saying: “We don’t know anything. This is already here and we don’t know anything.”
Environmental Injustice
The predominantly black communities in Southwest Memphis have long endured a history of environmental injustice. Developers have followed the patterns of pointing polluting industries to this part of town under the assumption that these communities lack the political power of wealthier neighborhoods. As a result, residents of Southwest Memphis have high rates of asthma, over 4 times the national average of cancer rates, and the water has significant amounts of carcinogenic contaminants. Time and again, Southwest Memphis has shown the resilience and fortitude to organize and stand up in the face of environmental racism.
Climate Action
The climate actions that exist, seem to be imperiled. The Daily Memphian reports (Feb. 13) that xAI plans to use methane gas turbines to power its data center in Southwest Memphis for the long term. On a permit application to the Shelby County Health Department, a consulting firm employed by xAI stated that the MLGW is unable to meet the eventual expectation of 300MW and additional power generation is needed to cover the shortfall.
A Grist article (Feb.12) describes a national trend where energy providers are responding to an extraordinary spike in demand by delaying the announced retirement of coal plants and proposing new methane gas build outs. The increased demand is attributed to data centers that back up generative AI and cryptocurrency. These data centers are booming across the country, but Georgia was the focus of the Grist article, where utilities are backtracking on their previously announced retirement of coal plants.
In Short
xAI’s Colossus houses the largest supercomputer in the world, it sits in our home state, and it is a venture belonging to Elon Musk. This billionaire oligarch seems to recognize no governance to his actions. In his powerful, albeit undescribed, position in our federal government, Musk has failed to demonstrate the slightest concern for the interests of American citizens. His tentacles have reached Tennessee and pose a threat to our ongoing campaigns for clean energy and the very health of our citizens. We need to be aware and stand united.
Emily Cathcart
Communications Coordinator, Third Act Tennessee
https://youtu.be/Tw696JVSxJQ?si=EUq3Q8seq5_iokCz
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/xai-colossus-memphis-power-tva/
https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/xai-memphis-data-center-elon-musk/
https://grist.org/energy/georgia-was-about-to-retire-coal-plants-then-came-the-data-cen/