Elon Musk quickly began pulling the plug on federal projects amid an escalating feud with Donald Trump, but the high-stakes clash now further threatens the most prized asset in his empire.
With Tesla shares in freefall and SpaceX contracts on the line, the ambitious megaproject Musk most needs to compete in the AI race could become collateral in the explosive back-and-forth.
Built in Tennessee, the supercomputer Colossus powers Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI. The vast facility cost an estimated $4 billion and Musk plans to spend tens of billions more expanding it in a bid to challenge AI giants OpenAI and Google.
However, it is already mired in an explosive backlash that the president could seize on.
Musk is facing calls to shut down the AI venture less than a year after it went online over concerns its data hub is releasing toxic fumes that are making people sick.
Residents in the southern Memphis community of Boxtown, where the facility is based, are increasingly showing up at emergency rooms suffering from a range of health conditions.
The facility was quietly constructed last year at a defunct Electrolux factory to help Musk train his Grok software, a competitor to ChatGPT, and to give him a foothold in the AI battle that could reshape America.
However, there were no public notices, hearings, or environmental reviews before the supercomputer went online – something prohibited by federal regulations.
Elon Musk is facing calls to shutdown his Tennessee AI facility over claims it is damaging locals’ health
Residents living near Elon Musk’s supercomputer say they are suffering adverse health as a result of toxic fumes the facility is producing. Isabel Whitaker (pictured) says her son wound up in the emergency room after his seasonal allergies spiraled into an asthma attack
Easter Knox (pictured), a 74-year-old who has lived in Boxtown where the supercomputer is based for several decades, told the Daily Mail that her husband was in the emergency department that very morning for a severe asthma flare-up. She has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD)
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has already determined the gas turbines used by Colossus contribute to smog-based health conditions and locals fear the emissions are contributing to sky high cases of cancer and asthma.
The Daily Mail spoke to one mom whose 12-year-old son ended up in the emergency room after what she thought was a seasonal cough soon spiraled out of control.
‘This year, it was marked by a persistent cough that eventually led to him gasping for air,’ Isabel Whitaker told the Daily Mail. ‘It got really scary and required a few trips to urgent care, a few trips to the doctor.’
Easter Knox, 74, who has lived in Boxtown for several decades, said her husband was in the hospital this spring for a severe asthma flare-up.
She herself lives with COPD, a chronic lung disease that worsens when she opens her windows in the morning.
‘My husband has an asthma problem, and with my COPD, the smell in the air, it makes it worse,’ she said.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has now written a letter urging lawmakers in Shelby County to pull the plug on the supercomputer.
The NAACP’s director of environmental and climate justice, Abre’ Conner said that cancer rates in the predominantly black Boxtown are four times the national average.
‘Musk is not above federal law. He’s not above state and county laws. He’s not above what’s happening at a local level, either,’ Conner declared.
‘We plan to continue to explore the different opportunities to ensure that xAI is held accountable for how it is mistreating and trying to mistreating the community there.’
Musk has already been canceling federal projects amid his feud with Donald Trump. The escalation of their war could now make the xAI facility a target in the battle
The facility has been online for less than a year, but locals warn it is already exacerbating already high levels of asthma and cancer in the community
The gas turbines the NAACP mention in their letter have been found by the EPA and the American Lung Association to emit nitrogen oxides (NOx), including nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a key contributor to smog-related health issues.
Musk’s xAI turbines spew an estimated 1,200 to 2,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, further contributing to the smog issue in the area, according to calculations by the Southern Environmental Law Center.
None of the 35 methane gas turbines that help power xAI’s supercomputer are equipped with federally-required pollution controls, according to Politico.
‘They had to shut down other plants that were emitting toxins into the air because of that,’ she noted, adding that both xAI and the Shelby County Health Department have, ‘known about the ongoing issues in south Memphis,’ Conner said.
‘We are urging you again to ensure that xAI stops operating its unpermitted turbines in violation of clean air and open meeting act laws and to order xAI to pay penalties for operating in violation of the law,’ the NAACP wrote in their letter to county officials and utility company Memphis Light Gas and Water (MLGW).
In a statement shared with the Daily Mail, MLGW claimed that the Shelby County Health Department is responsible for the allowing the facility to be built.
‘The baseless claims against MLGW in your letter reflect a complete lack of understanding of MLGW processes and the laws implicated,’ company president and CEO Doug McGowen told the NAACP on June 2.
‘Whoever you relied upon to inform you about MLGW’s roles and responsibilities when it comes to providing utilities was woefully misinformed or has deliberately misled you,’ the statement continued.
xAI sits just feet away from the Mississippi river along the Arkansas border in Boxtown, a small community in South Memphis
The supercomputer’s pollution control measures don’t meet federal guidance and the NAACP has linked this to locals’ trips to the emergency room for respiratory conditions
The Daily Mail has reached out to Musk, xAI and the Shelby County Health Department for comment and have not received a response.
Shelby County, which encompasses Boxtown, already grapples with the nation’s highest pediatric asthma hospitalization rate: 1,996 ER visits and 165 hospitalizations per 100,000 children each year.
Despite continuous pressure from the community, Conner said it took almost a year before the Shelby County Health Department held a public hearing on the emergency in Boxtown.
The NAACP director revealed that a representative from xAI left through a side door at the event before hearing from the community.
‘We have laws in place to say that they have to pay penalties and they [have been] cited violations for breaking the law, and that is what Elon Musk and xAI are doing at this point,’ Conner said.
‘Laws regarding air pollution at a federal level are still in place, and so as long as those laws are still there, we believe that they should be utilized.’
Before the turbines appeared, Shelby County had already earned failing grades from the American Lung Association for sky-high smog levels.
At 55 cases per million people, Memphis’s average cancer risk from air pollution is higher than the national level of 51 per million, ranking the city among the worst five percent of areas.
At the end of March, environmental groups flew over the facility and took photographs of the turbines. The aerial photos pictured 35 turbines onsite. All of them glowed red in the thermal cameras, indicating that all turbines are functional. xAI has insisted only 15 are up and running
Levels of smog, which creates hazy, poisonous air through a chemical reaction between pollutants spewing from methane gas turbines, are consistently higher in Shelby County than what is deemed safe, earning a failing grade from the American Lung Association
Toxic smog forms when NOx, nitrous oxide (NO) and nitrous dioxide (NO₂) from vehicles, power plants, and factories react with sunlight.
NO converts to NO₂, creating urban haze. Sunlight then breaks NO₂ into components that form ozone (O₃) – the hazy, breath-choking core of smog.
According to the EPA, even brief exposure worsens asthma and other respiratory diseases, triggering coughing, wheezing, and ER visits.
An NIH-funded study in 2015 found a four-percent increased lung cancer risk per 10 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m³) increase in NO₂ in the air and a three-percent increased lung cancer risk per 10 μg/m³ increase in NOx.
xAI has insisted only 15 of its 35 gas turbines are up and running.
But at the end of March, environmental groups flew over the facility and took thermal images which revealed every single turbine lit up red, meaning all are functional.
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