Data Center Record.

Reported In courtBuilt from one source

SpaceXAI Memphis data centers

SpaceXAI is expanding data center operations in Memphis, with Elon Musk confirming a fourth facility and the company adding another center in Whitehaven while removing gas turbines deemed illegal. It is reported, as reported August 20, 2026. Lawsuit filed in August 2026 seeks $30 million in damages, $20 million of which is punitive (reported September 18, 2026).

How much power it needs, how much water it would use and who would use it have not been disclosed.

Last verified · 10 sources, 0 primary · A skeleton record: built from one source, not yet reviewed in depth by a person. · How to read this page

How to read this page. Every fact links to the source it rests on; a number in brackets is its place in the source list. A figure no source gives reads Not disclosed, and nothing is estimated. Where sources give different figures, each is shown with who gave it, and another source's figure never stands in for the record's own. Entries are added and never overwritten; corrections are listed under What happened.

What is known

Each figure as its source gave it. The number in brackets is its place in the source list.

Land
Not disclosed
Power it would draw
Not disclosed
Water
Not disclosed
Who leads it
SpaceXAI
as stated by the source
Who would use it
Not disclosed
Jobs once it runs
Not disclosed
Tax each year
Not disclosed
Where its power comes from
gas turbines
as stated by the source [6]
Every field, with who said it and when (Researcher view)

Impact figures

FieldValueWho says soSourceLast verified
How much power it needs Not disclosed
How much water it would use Not disclosed
How loud it would be Not disclosed
Jobs once it runs Not disclosed
Tax it would pay each year Not disclosed

The record's fields

FieldValueWho says soSourceLast verified
Who is building it SpaceXAI as stated by the source September 25, 2026
Who is constructing it Not disclosed
How much land Not disclosed
Where its power comes from gas turbines as stated by the source [6] independent.co.uk September 25, 2026
Grid connection Not disclosed
How it is cooled Not disclosed

The developer's figure is what the company said; what a permit allows is the ceiling a permit sets; measured means observed. Water is in gallons a day or a year, whichever the source stated; a tax claim given as a range shows both ends, each linked to the source that gave it.

Still not public, and where it would show up

The record adds each the day a source gives it. Why these documents.

  • Water useA state water right filing or a water supply agreement.
  • Who would use itA lease announcement or a tenant named in a filing.
  • Power the campus would drawA utility or public service commission docket, an interconnection filing, or an air permit for an on site plant.
  • Jobs and taxAn incentive agreement, a county's economic development filing or a fiscal note.

What was decided

Acts of Shelby County and Memphis about data centers, on the record with their source. A rule about the area is not a decision about this record.

DateWhoDecisionSource
Memphis restrictive Memphis imposed data center moratorium while SpaceXAI continues expansion in Mississippi less than a mile away dailymemphian.com
Memphis restrictive Three Memphis City Council members J.B. Smiley Jr., Yolanda Cooper Sutton, and Jana Swearengen Washington proposing 12 month moratorium on data center development thecentersquare.com
Memphis restrictive xAI required government officials to sign NDAs during development of the Colossus facility near Memphis, Tennessee newsweek.com
Memphis restrictive Memphis City Council ordinance for temporary moratorium on data center permits passed first reading on August 18. yahoo.com
Memphis restrictive Memphis City Council proposed a temporary moratorium on new data center development radionwtn.com

What happened

  1. (source date; the content gives no date of its own)

    SpaceXAI agreed to timeline for removal of turbines with Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, all turbines to be removed by July 2027. [6]

  2. (source date; the content gives no date of its own)

    Operations at Colossus II came online in January 2026. [6]

  3. (source date; the content gives no date of its own)

    Colossus I opened in 2024. [6]

  4. (source date; the content gives no date of its own)

    Lawsuit filed in August 2026 seeks $30 million in damages, $20 million of which is punitive. [6]

  5. (source date; the content gives no date of its own)

    Vicent died in Florida in February, months after the fall. [6]

  6. (source date; the content gives no date of its own)

    Worker Alexis Vicent fell from a mezzanine at Colossus II in August 2025. [6]

  7. (source date; the content gives no date of its own)

    Residents filed a lawsuit challenging the noise pollution from the data center [9]

  8. (source date; the content gives no date of its own)

    Elon Musk announced the xAI campus could expand to 10 times its current capacity [9]

3 earlier entries

  1. (source date; the content gives no date of its own)

    xAI promised to replace the gas turbines in one year with quieter permanent ones as of July 2026 [9]

  2. (source date; the content gives no date of its own)

    xAI's hyperscale data center in Memphis opened in 2024 [2]

  3. · reported (source date; the content gives no date of its own)

    TVA Board approved over 100 megawatts of firm power for SpaceXAI Memphis operations. [7]

The full SpaceXAI Memphis data centers timeline, in order

8 corrections to this record

Every correction, with its reason

  1. · the summary of a record items row

    the record's rules: the sentence was the source's wording or carried a number not in the card's facts; written again from the article The old and new text.

  2. · the kind of source of a history entry

    The source was labeled with the Google News search that found it; it now carries its outlet's tier (the record's rules of 2026-09-23). The link did not change. The day's label corrections.

  3. · the kind of source of a history entry

    The source was labeled with the Google News search that found it; it now carries its outlet's tier (the record's rules of 2026-09-23). The link did not change. The day's label corrections.

  4. · the kind of source of a history entry

    The source was labeled with the Google News search that found it; it now carries its outlet's tier (the record's rules of 2026-09-23). The link did not change. The day's label corrections.

  5. · the kind of source of a history entry

    The source was labeled with the Google News search that found it; it now carries its outlet's tier (the record's rules of 2026-09-23). The link did not change. The day's label corrections.

  6. · the kind of source of a history entry

    The source was labeled with the Google News search that found it; it now carries its outlet's tier (the record's rules of 2026-09-23). The link did not change. The day's label corrections.

  7. · the kind of source of a history entry

    Tier after resolution (2026-09-21). The source on file is radionwtn.com, the publisher's own page. The item reached the record through Google News: "data center" Tennessee, which the record carries at tier 1, and the approve copied the feed's tier onto this row. The tier now comes from the outlet, which the record already carries at tier 4 on 1 row of sources. DECISIONS section 7. The speaker, the claim, the date and the url are unchanged. The day's label corrections.

  8. · the kind of source of a history entry

    Tier after resolution (2026-09-21). The source on file is radionwtn.com, the publisher's own page. The item reached the record through Google News: "data center" Tennessee, which the record carries at tier 1, and the approve copied the feed's tier onto this row. The tier now comes from the outlet, which the record already carries at tier 4 on 1 row of sources. DECISIONS section 7. The speaker, the claim, the date and the url are unchanged. The day's label corrections.

Every correction on the record is on the corrections page.

What was said

Memphis community reports cancer rate 4.1 times the national average near xAI data center
Keshaun Pearson, co-founder of Memphis Community Against Pollution · September 11, 2026 · paraphrased · WSMV local outlet

Every statement about data centers in Tennessee, by speaker

The site

Where in Shelby County is not in the public record. The pin marks the county seat, not a building, and the outline is the county.

  • This record: Proposed, ringed
  • data center
  • Dashed edge: the exact site is not in the public record
  • Smaller pins: 5 other published records in Tennessee
Details
  • this record's location, ringed
  • parcel outline, from the county parcel record
  • city limits, U.S. Census Bureau, on a town level record
  • county boundary

The other pins are the published projects in the same state, each in its stage color. The imagery beneath is the USGS national orthoimagery, public domain, shown so the land around the site can be read.

Where
Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee
How exactly it is located
County level, the county seat
The parcel
No parcel outline in the public record
Nearest homes
Not computed for a record placed at a place center
Nearest records
Nearest records are not computed for a record placed at a county seat.

Keep going

The county Shelby County 2 projects on the record. A pause on new data centers is on the record. The state Data centers in Tennessee Every Tennessee project, the rules on the record and what comes next.

Questions about this project

4 questions answered from the record

Answered from the rows on this page.

Who is building SpaceXAI Memphis data centers?

SpaceXAI is the developer. No construction contractor is named on the record yet.

How much power and water does SpaceXAI Memphis data centers say it needs?

Power: not disclosed by any source on file. Water: not disclosed by any source on file.

Where does SpaceXAI Memphis data centers stand today?

It is reported, as reported August 20, 2026. The newest entry, reported September 18, 2026: SpaceXAI agreed to timeline for removal of turbines with Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality, all turbines to be removed by July 2027. [6]

What has Memphis or Shelby County decided about it?

Memphis (rated restrictive): Memphis imposed data center moratorium while SpaceXAI continues expansion in Mississippi less than a mile away (reported September 21, 2026, source); and Memphis: Three Memphis City Council members J.B. Smiley Jr., Yolanda Cooper Sutton, and Jana Swearengen Washington proposing 12 month moratorium on data center development (reported September 8, 2026, source). 5 events are on the county's rows; a rule about the area is not a decision about this record.

Sources

Primary documents first: filings, minutes, dockets and official pages. Then reporting. The numbers are the ones the entries above cite.

Reporting

  1. Musk confirms fourth SpaceXAI data center in Memphis, company starts removing 'illegal' gas turbines - Data Center Dynamics, Data Center Dynamics, July 31, 2026, trade press
  2. NAACP, Stand Up Nashville hold data center town hall with experts from across the country - WSMV, WSMV, September 11, 2026, local outlet
  3. Elon Musk's Memphis AI empire is the epicenter of the data center backlash - CNBC, CNBC, July 16, 2026, local outlet
  4. Memphis AI data center fuels pollution fight in Black neighborhood - France 24, France 24, August 11, 2026, local outlet
  5. Memphis weighs data center moratorium in city Musk’s xAI calls ‘home’ - eenews.net, eenews.net, August 20, 2026, local outlet
  6. Elon Musk’s data center sued for $30 million by family of worker killed at site - The Independent, The Independent, September 18, 2026, local outlet
  7. TVA vote impacts data centers as Memphis residents raise environmental concerns - localmemphis.com, localmemphis.com, August 20, 2026, local outlet
  8. Congressional Candidate Molder Supports Memphis Data Center Moratorium - Radio NWTN, Radio NWTN, August 18, 2026, local outlet
  9. Residents file lawsuit challenging noise pollution from Elon Musk's data center, Connecticut Public, September 17, 2026, local outlet
  10. SpaceXAI adds another data center in Memphis; Whitehaven residents react - WREG.com, WREG.com, July 31, 2026, local outlet

10 sources on file.

Cite this record

Data Center Record, "SpaceXAI Memphis data centers", https://datacenterrecord.org/projects/spacexai-memphis-data-centers-tn, last verified September 25, 2026.

Last verified , first recorded . Every correction is logged on the corrections page and under What happened.

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Cite this page

Data Center Record, "SpaceXAI Memphis data centers", https://datacenterrecord.org/projects/spacexai-memphis-data-centers-tn. Data: Data Center Record, datacenterrecord.org, CC BY 4.0.

The structured rows are CC BY 4.0. Link to this page; that is what turns a reuse into a citation. Prose stays under copyright.

Report a change
For researchers
Slug
spacexai-memphis-data-centers-tn
Status value
rumored
Stage
Proposed
Tier
skeleton
Tags
court, skeleton
Place id
us/tn/shelby-county/memphis
Coordinates
35.14611, -90.05194
Location precision
county
Location source
County seat (Memphis), Wikidata, placed at county level
Coordinate source
wikidata county seat
Location source number
Not disclosed
Location last verified
September 16, 2026
EPA registry id
Not disclosed
Use type values
not_disclosed
Tenancy value
not_disclosed
Cooling type value
not_disclosed
Capacity basis
not_disclosed
Water basis
not_disclosed, gallons_per_day
Acreage basis
Not disclosed
Interconnection value
not_disclosed
Capacity, if disclosed
Not disclosed
Rating of the county's rows
Restrictive
Published
2026-09-05
Last verified
2026-09-25