xAI (X.AI) received approval today from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to build a natural gas-fired power plant to provide electricity for its nearby data centers, CNBC reported.
The facility will feature 41 gas-burning turbines. It will be located in Southhaven, which is also where xAI is developing a data center dubbed MACROHARDRR. xAI has two data centers, Colossus 1 and 2, located in nearby Memphis, Tenn.
Early last month, it was revealed xAI had merged with SpaceX (SPACE), bringing two of Elon Musk’s most valuable companies under one roof. The combined companies are expected to have a valuation of $1.25T. Musk also serves as the CEO of Tesla (TSLA).
Residents, along with representatives from the NAACP and an environmental group, were apparently upset the MDEQ decided to hold the board meeting on the same day as the state’s primary elections, the report said.
“We are outraged that, despite the community’s clear demand to move the Election Day hearing, MDEQ chose to bulldoze through a decision that silenced the very residents most harmed by it,” said Abre’ Conner, director of environmental and climate justice at NAACP, in a statement.
“Mississippi state regulators appear to be more interested in fast-tracking xAI’s personal power plant than conducting a thorough review of its impacts and having meaningful engagement with the families that will be forced to live with this dirty facility—and its pollution—in their communities,” said Patrick Anderson, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.