Memphis residents are not happy with the development of Elon Musk’s xAI Coloussus AI supercomputer

Memphis activists have criticized grid operator Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for giving Elon Musk’s xAI startup access to an additional 150 MW to power its Colossus AI supercomputer, Datacenter Dynamics reports. TVA approved the request from Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) last Thursday.

Colossus is designed to train and maintain the AI ​​bot Grok, which went live earlier this year. The supercomputer is housed in a former Electrolux plant in an industrial park in southeast Memphis. Previously, Musk stated that we are talking about the world’s fastest AI supercomputer, which includes 100 thousand NVIDIA H100 accelerators. True, just a few days later Meta✴ boasted of an even larger learning system, Llama-4. But Musk also promised to double the power of the supercomputer in the coming months, which will receive 50 thousand NVIDIA H200 accelerators.

All this means that the car will require a lot of energy. Earlier this year, MLGW agreed to provide xAI with another 150 MW, pending TVA approval. The complex even had to be powered by Voltagrid mobile gas generators, which in itself caused discontent among local residents. xAI, for its part, has pledged to build the world’s largest ceramic membrane wastewater treatment system, as well as discount resources from the Tesla Megapack energy storage facility built next to Colossus to support the stability of the Memphis power grid.

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The news was not met with enthusiasm by local activists and environmentalists concerned about the likely strain on the city’s power grid and poor air quality. Activists also stress that TVA has a responsibility to serve the public interest and study the implications of allocating an additional 150 MW to xAI as the region already suffers from high grid loads and pollution. The point, in particular, is that TVA intends to build natural gas turbines to produce another 200 MW, since the operator could not cope with demand last fall.

TVA says the operator’s job is to work with partners to attract investment and jobs to the region, carefully evaluating the details of each proposal in each case. MLGW will receive $760 thousand from the budget to commission another 50 MW, and xAI undertakes to build its own 150 MW substation for $24 million. The existing agreements provide that xAI will receive monthly rebates from the energy supplier until it compensates for the cost of the substation it is building and it becomes the property of MLGW.