Memphis, Tennessee, 31 December (H.S.): Elon Musk announced on Tuesday that his artificial intelligence startup xAI has acquired a third massive building, dubbed MACROHARDRR—a playful jab at Microsoft—to expand its Colossus supercomputer cluster near Memphis, Tennessee, targeting nearly 2 gigawatts of compute power and over 1 million graphics processing units.

The 810,000-square-foot warehouse in Southaven, Mississippi, adjoins the existing Colossus 2 facility and proximity to a custom natural gas power plant, enabling rapid conversion into a data center slated for operational startup in 2026.

No accidents or safety incidents marred the property acquisition process, though the expansion intensifies debates over energy demands in a region already strained by prior xAI builds.

Colossus Expansion and Competitive Edge

xAI's Colossus, launched in a repurposed 785,000-square-foot Electrolux factory in Memphis's Boxtown district in July 2024, currently houses 100,000 Nvidia GPUs with plans to scale to 1 million, surpassing rivals like OpenAI and Anthropic in raw training capacity.

This third site follows a $80 million purchase of a 1 million-square-foot Whitehaven property in March 2025, positioning xAI to dominate AI model development for its Grok chatbot without reliance on cloud partners like Microsoft or Amazon.

Musk envisions the cluster emulating full software companies through AI simulation, branding the rooftop MACROHARD in letters visible from space to signal ambitions beyond mere model provision.

Power Infrastructure and Local Investments

Proximity to xAI's under-construction natural gas plant—supplemented by Tesla batteries and a $78 million wastewater recycling facility—addresses the voracious electricity needs of GPU clusters, which xAI funds privately amid a prospective $10 billion fundraising valuing the firm at $75 billion.

The company relocated some turbines across the state line into Mississippi and erected noise barriers following community input, while claiming upgraded units make it the lowest-emitting facility in the country. Local boosters, including the Memphis Chamber of Commerce, hail the projects for promising jobs and economic growth in Whitehaven and Boxtown.

Environmental Backlash and Community Concerns

Environmental groups, including the Southern Environmental Law Center and NAACP, have threatened lawsuits over unpermitted methane gas turbines at the South Memphis site, where aerial imagery revealed 35 units emitting NOx—potentially the area's largest smog source—despite xAI's claims of minimal air quality impact per University of Memphis modeling.

Residents in historically Black neighborhoods decry pollution surges tied to the facilities, prompting protests and hundreds of Shelby County Health Department complaints, even as xAI insists operations stay below federal thresholds for sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and nitrogen dioxide. Critics warn the third center could exacerbate grid strain and emissions without clearer powering plans.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar