Elon Musk’s xAI data centers have grown so loud that a group of Mississippi residents has sued, urging a judge to intervene and even order the company to pay damages.
“It is a textbook example of putting profits over people, with corporate interests trampling residents’ fundamental right to use and enjoy their property,” the lawsuit says.
As PCMag reports, three residents in Mississippi’s De Soto County filed the class-action lawsuit for affected residents in the city of Southaven, which sits near the Tennessee border. Home to about 58,000 people, Southaven used to enjoy a “calm and quiet” environment, but since mid-2025, the community has faced “near-constant noise” and vibrations from xAI’s use of gas turbines to power the neighboring data centers, the lawsuit says.
“The presence of this noise is pervasive and inescapable, especially at night when other noises in the indoor and outdoor environment quiet,” the 63-page complaint says. “Residents must endure this noise at all hours of the day and night and have described it as being like a ‘jet engine.’”
The lawsuit blames xAI’s two data centers in Memphis, Colossus 1 and Colossus 2, as well as a third, $20 billion data center in Southaven scheduled to start operations in February. Together, the data centers sit in a cluster straddling the Tennessee-Mississippi border, where crews have been spotted installing gas-powered turbines for power.
Turbines at the Site Multiplied from 3 to 57 in Less than a Year
According to the complaint, the number of turbines at the Southaven site has grown from “3 to 18 to 27 to 57” in less than a year. “The noise generated by the Southaven Plant includes a combination of high-pitched squealing, continuous engine roaring, low-frequency rumbling, and tonal humming or whining,” the document adds.
In response, residents are suing xAI for causing private and public nuisances, as well as negligence for creating the persistent noise. The lawsuit is also demanding that Elon Musk’s company pay damages for allegedly causing “mental anguish and emotional distress” and preventing people from enjoying their property.
“Further, because Defendants acts were done maliciously, oppressively, deliberately, and in reckless disregard of Plaintiffs and the class, Defendants conduct warrants an assessment of punitive damages,” the complaint adds.
Part of a Growing Pushback by Residents Near Data Centers
The lawsuit is part of a growing pushback from residents and environmental groups concerned about air pollution from turbine use. The NAACP has also sued to stop “unpermitted air pollution from an illegal power plant” in Southaven that xAI has been using for the Colossus 2 data center. Meanwhile, residents in New Jersey sued a local data center over noise complaints, too.
xAI didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. But its parent, SpaceX, is working to launch orbiting data centers, touting them as a more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly alternative to terrestrial data centers. That said, space-based data centers face their own technical hurdles, and it’s unclear whether they can beat ground-based data centers on cost and performance, though Musk is betting they will.
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