SpaceXAI Powers Down 11 Southaven Turbines and Reaches 1.1 Million H100 Compute Milestone on Colossus 2
Elon Musk’s SpaceXAI (formerly xAI) is executing a rapid operational transition at its massive Colossus supercomputing cluster on the Tennessee-Mississippi border. On August 31, 2026, the company announced it has powered down 11 of its 69 temporary, mobile natural-gas turbines at its Stanton Road plant in Southaven, Mississippi.
The shutdown is part of a binding agreed order entered with the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) in July 2026, establishing a fixed timeline to remove all 69 temporary turbines1 by July 2027. They will be replaced by a permanent 1.2 GW power plant consisting of 41 permanent turbines authorized under a Clean Air Act permit granted to SpaceXAI in March 2026.
Clean Air Act Lawsuit and DOJ Intervention
The rapid de-escalation of the temporary turbine footprint comes amid a high-stakes legal battle. The NAACP and its Mississippi State Conference filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi seeking a preliminary injunction to halt the temporary turbines, alleging they were operated without required permits and pollution controls.
In court filings, SpaceXAI warned that an abrupt shutdown of the Stanton Road plant would inflict "catastrophic harms," causing its flagship model Grok to "largely cease to function."
In a major policy intervention, the Trump administration's Department of Justice (DOJ) petitioned the federal court to dismiss the NAACP's lawsuit, citing Grok's national security role and arguing that the temporary turbines should be allowed to operate to maintain AI leadership.
To mitigate local community complaints over noise and pollution, SpaceXAI has invested "millions of dollars" in sound walls, silencers, and selective catalytic reduction devices to safely convert nitrous oxides into nitrogen and water.
Colossus 2 Reaches 1.1 Million H100 Compute Milestone
Despite the legal friction, SpaceXAI's infrastructure footprint continues to expand at a record pace:
- Colossus 2 in Memphis has officially reached 946 MW and 1.1 million H100-equivalent compute, solidifying its position as the world's largest AI supercomputing cluster under a $35.8 billion valuation.
- On September 1, 2026, the Southaven Board of Aldermen approved plans for a second Southaven area data center (a 660,000-square-foot facility filed by SpaceXAI affiliate MZX Tech LLC), which will represent SpaceXAI's fifth data center location in the Mid-South area.
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An instance of Local environmental resistance has become a formal material hazard to AI scaling. — Local environmental and regulatory actions targeting unpermitted power generation have forced a strict timeline that directly threatens to halt SpaceXAI's model operations. ↩︎