--- title: "Elon Musk’s Huge AI Supercomputer Visibly Spewing Fumes Into Surrounding Community" description: "Elon Musk built a massive, fume-emitting data center for xAI in South Memphis. Locals reportedly had little to no input." date: "2024-09-13" modified: "2024-09-13" authors: - name: "Maggie Harrison Dupré" job_title: "Senior Staff Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/mharrison" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-ai-fumes" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" tags: - "elon musk" - "grok" - "the digest" - "xai" --- # Elon Musk’s Huge AI Supercomputer Visibly Spewing Fumes Into Surrounding Community ![Elon Musk built a massive, fume-emitting data center for xAI in South Memphis. Locals reportedly had little to no input.]() *\Image: Jean Catuffe / GC Images via Getty\* ## Smoke in the Air The facility Elon Musk is using to power his massive AI "supercomputer" is visibly emitting fumes into an area of Memphis already disproportionately impacted by harmful environmental pollution, [*NPR* reports](). Musk [announced the AI-focused supercomputer](), dubbed Colossus, in an X-formerly-Twitter post last week. Built to power his AI venture xAI, the supercomputer is [said by Musk]() to run on 100,000 powerful Nvidia H100 graphics processing units (GPUs), or the chips largely used by AI companies to power their AI models. Musk claims that the facility took just 122 days to build, and that he hopes to double its size in just the next few months. Per *NPR*, the main goal of the facility is to power Grok, xAI's text and image generator. But generative AI tools like Grok use a lot of energy. According to *NPR*, Musk's Colossus facility is powered in part by 18 methane gas generators, none of which the billionaire obtained a permit for. Already, these gas generators are spewing smoky fumes into the surrounding area's air — ringing major alarm bells for a community already suffering from [disproportionately high rates of cancer]() and [much lower life expectancy]() than surrounding areas due to outsized levels of pollution. "They have a very serious air pollution problem," Amanda Garcia, a senior attorney for the Southern Environmental Law Center, told *NPR.* "Southwest Memphis is ground zero." ## At What Cost Worse, [as *Forbes* first reported in July](), city officials who were aware of the facility signed restrictive non-disclosure agreements about the build — meaning the facility wasn't just built lightning-fast, but without the input or even knowledge of community members who will bear its physical and environmental consequences. "We have been deemed by xAI not even valuable enough to have a conversation with," KeShaun Pearson, president of the area nonprofit Memphis Community Against Pollution, told *NPR*. "To not even be included in conversations about what is transpiring in our own backyards." Per the report, Pearson grew up just a few miles away from where the xAI facility is now. Musk has a history of [skirting]() environmental regulations, so none of this is [exactly]() [surprising](). But like [many other communities]() throughout the US, South Memphis is already a place where the health and lives of residents have effectively been sacrificed for the sake of heavily polluting industries. Regardless, Musk and xAI are quickly charging ahead — and for what? [A chatbot that swears sometimes]()? "Artificial intelligence may be a cutting-edge technology," Garcia told *NPR*. "But it's imposing the same kinds of pollution burdens on communities that industrial sources have been for the past 100 years." **More on Elon and the environment:** [*Investigation Finds Elon Musk's SpaceX Used Trickery to Open Rocket Facility*]() ## Author At Futurism, I've reported extensively on the rise of AI as a cultural and business force shaping the media industry, and more broadly how those dynamics are changing how we all consume and share information and relate to one another. I'm also fascinated by public health policy and ethics, the role of emerging tech in politics and governance — and the powerful people and forces at those intersections — climate change, and the environment. My investigation on Sports Illustrated's use of AI-generated authors with fictional biographies won a 2024 Mirror Award for "Best Story on Media Coverage of Artificial Intelligence in Journalism and the Media" from Syracuse University's SI Newhouse School, I contributed to Niemen Lab's 2025 Predictions for Journalism series, and I've discussed my work for Futurism during appearances on NPR, CNN, the BBC, the CBC, and more. I grew up in rural Pennsylvania and attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where I played Division I field hockey for the Minutewomen as a midfielder. Since then, I've lived in New Orleans, Louisiana and Manhattan, New York. I spend my free time running, reading, perusing archival fashion, and searching for the world’s best negroni. I also have a debonair tuxedo cat, Westley, who's named after "The Princess Bride." ### Author social links [Bluesky]()