An investigation into the data centers built in Memphis and Southaven, and the agencies that were supposed to be watching them.
Elon Musk is just Elon Musking. The question I kept coming back to is who was supposed to stop him. It turns out there isn’t one referee – there’s a stack of them, in different buildings, in two states, and I’ve been asking every one of them for their paperwork. Every essay below sits under the question it is trying to answer.
Start here: Elon Musk is just Elon Musking – who is actually in charge of stopping him?
How did xAI end up in Memphis?
What did they build, and how did they do it so fast?
- Could Memphis Have Capped Musk’s Colossus 2?
- xAI’s Tesla Megapacks sit over the aquifer. Shelby County never planned for them.
- What is the mitigation plan for xAI battery parks?
- How xAI could actually help its neighbors
- How did 68 of xAI’s turbines get into Mississippi with no permit?
Who is in charge of what they built, and who oversees it?
- Could Memphis Have Capped Musk’s Colossus 2?
- Does a Moratorium Hand xAI a Monopoly?
- Nashville Body Slams Memphis When It Comes to Data Center Rules
- Is every data center in Memphis like xAI’s?
- Fight breaks out at Memphis City Council after protesters are edged
- Does Memphis’s Data Center Moratorium Even Matter?
- Were xAI’s turbines legal? Let’s look at the records
- Who told EPA that xAI’s turbines need a permit? The turbine industry did.
- Who oversees xAI in Memphis and Southaven? – a reference page: ten pieces of a data center, who has the job in each state, updated as the record changes
- xAI’s Tesla Megapacks sit over the aquifer. Shelby County never planned for them.
- xAI is hiring for positions that should have been filled already
- Who pays for xAI’s power?
- An update on the air around xAI’s Colossus 1
- How did 68 of xAI’s turbines get into Mississippi with no permit?
What are the complaints?
- xAI, MLGW and the NDAs: the real story on Memphis’s water
- Memphians are being poisoned by something worse than gas turbines
- Memphis and Southaven Can’t Figure Out This Obvious Solution
- The air in South Memphis – and the receipts
- xAI’s turbines are poisoning Boxtown’s air – and the Trump DOJ just moved to kill the lawsuit
- Did the University of Memphis just settle the xAI air fight?
- Let’s Talk About xAI and Data Center Pollution
Did the agencies do their jobs?
- About Those NDAs – How Could the Mayor Not Know?
- xAI, MLGW and the NDAs: the real story on Memphis’s water
- Memphis and Southaven Can’t Figure Out This Obvious Solution
- Mississippi Asked xAI Some Very Specific Questions. The Response Was a Hedge.
- What You Should Know About Mississippi’s Upcoming Hearing on xAI’s Turbines
- Were xAI’s turbines legal? Let’s look at the records
- Who told EPA that xAI’s turbines need a permit? The turbine industry did.
- South Memphis had four air monitors. Every one went dark.
- An update on the air around xAI’s Colossus 1
- How did 68 of xAI’s turbines get into Mississippi with no permit?
- Did the University of Memphis just settle the xAI air fight?
- Let’s Talk About xAI and Data Center Pollution
What are the current solutions being proposed?
- Could Memphis Have Capped Musk’s Colossus 2?
- Does a Moratorium Hand xAI a Monopoly?
- Memphians are being poisoned by something worse than gas turbines
- Nashville Body Slams Memphis When It Comes to Data Center Rules
- Is every data center in Memphis like xAI’s?
- Fight breaks out at Memphis City Council after protesters are edged
- Does Memphis’s Data Center Moratorium Even Matter?
- Mississippi Asked xAI Some Very Specific Questions. The Response Was a Hedge.
- What You Should Know About Mississippi’s Upcoming Hearing on xAI’s Turbines
- The Latest on the Data Center Moratorium
- Forcing data centers to come clean before they break ground
- Who pays for xAI’s power?
News updates
The short posts I put on Facebook as things happen, kept here so they stay on the record.
- September 7, 2026 – News update: Texas readers named the site, and it’s Grimes County
- September 7, 2026 – News update: a SpaceXAI job listing for a Doosan gas plant moved from Memphis to Texas
- September 3, 2026 – News update: the Justice Department asks for a written ruling by September 10
The case board, where every document and every open records request is pinned to the question it belongs to, is at the xAI Files board.