SpaceX recommits to building water recycling plant
SpaceXAI representatives met with Memphis Mayor Paul Young and MLGW President Doug McGowen earlier this week.
There are 172 article(s) tagged xAI:
SpaceXAI representatives met with Memphis Mayor Paul Young and MLGW President Doug McGowen earlier this week.
The local face of SpaceX has been making a lot of news as the Houston-based company goes public with a record-setting IPO. The local controversies against that backdrop were discussed on “Behind The Headlines.”
Musk became the world’s first trillionaire after shares of his rocket company SpaceX, which also operates Memphis data centers, soared in Wall Street’s biggest initial public offering of stock.
SpaceX paused construction of the plant in April, which The Daily Memphian first reported.
The board’s recommendations — which still need to pass the City Council — include a $1 million allocation for a pre-weatherization assistance program to help residents with critical home repairs, mold remediation and indoor air quality improvements.
SpaceX purchased the building that houses the Colossus data center for $185 million, documents show.
Anthropic, the company behind the widely successful Claude chatbot, would use all of Colossus’ computing capacity.
Demonstrators outside xAI’s Colossus I data center in Southwest Memphis voice concerns about air pollution in the area.
GXO Logistics is streamlining its local footprint, leasing an Olive Branch warehouse after Elon Musk’s xAI purchased two of its previous local facilities.
The NAACP, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI.
University leadership at four regional higher education institutions will sign an agreement forming an AI research partnership on April 20.
According to several high-level sources, Ted Townsend has been placed on leave by the Greater Memphis Chamber, but it is unclear why.
“Will Elon Musk follow through on his promise to build a water-recycling facility? It’s up to Memphians to make sure he does.”Related content:
Last month, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality Permit Board approved an xAI subsidiary’s application to erect 41 natural gas turbines.
The Daily Memphian reported the water recycling facility, a key promise the company made to local leaders and residents, was “on an indefinite pause.” Without it, xAI uses fresh drinking water to cool its Colossus data center.
Ahead of SpaceX’s IPO, it would stand to reason the cost of a water-recycling plant may be essential to the long-term health of the Memphis Sand Aquifer, but it might not be essential to a company whose books could soon come under broader public scrutiny.Related content:
Without the plant’s completion, xAI and TVA could continue drawing billions of gallons of freshwater from the aquifer, which also supplies the region’s drinking water.
Together, the companies are laying off more than 450 workers in North Mississippi.
“If a company’s business model depends on the exploitation of a Black city and the enrichment of a few power brokers at the top, we don’t want them here.”
The appraisals for the two data centers help to determine how much Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company will pay in property taxes.
The high school students, who are seeking to proceed under pseudonyms, filed the lawsuit in California, where xAI — Musk’s artificial intelligence company — has its headquarters.
The vote followed widespread community outcry about the turbines’ impact on the quality of life for neighbors and residents.
In the past year, xAI has built out a second Memphis data center campus in Memphis’ Whitehaven neighborhood.
Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company continues to pour billions of dollars into Memphis and North Mississippi.
Also in the political roundup, Tim Burchett at Lincoln Day, xAI surfaces at Democratic mayor’s forum, Henri Brooks on reasons to run and the shape of the new County Commission.