“I intended to die right here,” said Gossett, 76, who wonders how long he will have to put up with the noise and the air pollution. “Hell, I couldn’t give my house away with all this noise.”
The new xAi plant in Southaven, Miss.
Eddie Gossett lives on the same road as xAI’s facility. He says the roar of xAI’s turbines keeps him up at night.Houston Cofield for NBC News
Musk’s xAI bought the long-dormant power plant in Southaven last year and plans to spend more than $20 billion in the area, some of it on a new data center in the city. It was the largest private investment in state history, according to Mississippi’s governor.
Nine more temporary turbines arrived in December, bringing the total to 27. The company has since applied for a permit to put in 41 permanent turbines at the 114-acre site to generate electricity for AI data centers.
Tech giants like Microsoft, OpenAI and Google are making billions in AI investments across the country to build up the computing and electric power the technology demands. That requires vast land and resources and, for communities like Southaven, a tradeoff between the promise of new jobs and tax revenue vs. environmental and energy costs.
There is also another X factor: The technology may reshape industries and unlock scientific discoveries, but it also poses a potential threat to the future of work in many industries. That’s what makes neighbors’ complaints about the Southaven plant a bit different from opposition to other residential or commercial projects. The power plant doesn’t just sound irritating, nearby homeowners say. It sounds scary.Calcula en 1 minuto el precio de la alarma con instalación incluida
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The new xAi plant in Southaven, Miss.
Like other tech companies, xAI has sought to build its own power plant to meet the technology’s electricity demands.Houston Cofield for NBC News
“I don’t know all that’s entailed with it,” Charlene Wilson, a Southaven resident, told NBC News at a packed regulatory hearing on Feb. 17 about xAI’s request to add the permanent turbines. “What’s the point in all of this? A lot of people are going to be out of work.”
The uproar in Southaven isn’t the first time data centers and their power needs have disrupted quiet neighborhoods. In Northern Virginia, known as Data Center Alley, some property owners have tried to escape continuous hums by selling their homes.
At Tuesday’s State of the Union address, President Donald Trump called on tech companies to build power plants to meet the electricity needs for their data centers as part of an effort to address opposition and concerns about spiking utility bills. Over three months last year, an estimated $98 billion in projects were blocked or stalled across the country, according to Data Center Watch, which tracks local opposition to the facilities.
The money, speed and urgency with which Musk and other tech leaders are pursuing the ventures didn’t give communities in Southaven much time to push back over noise and health concerns. The public hearing in Southaven was an opportunity for the community to raise questions about the plan for permanent turbines, which could be approved as soon as next month.
