xAI's answer to Mississippi's data center questions

What happens when a Mississippi official asks xAI for the facts in writing – and xAI writes back without a single number?

The xAI files

Every essay in this series is pinned to a question on the board at rachelandthecity.com/the-xai-files.

That’s what I got back from MDEQ this morning.

In my last essay – the one about the Southaven hearing in November – I told you about a memo. Mississippi’s agriculture commissioner, Andy Gipson, sits on the board that votes on MDEQ permits. On July 14th, he sent the board a memo saying that at least 30 days before “any public hearing or vote” on a data center permit, he’s requiring the company to hand over a list of facts.

And it’s a pretty specific list.

It asks for where the water comes from and how much they expect to use. It asks where the power comes from, and whether it’s on the grid or “behind the grid.” It asks for the “known or estimated” heat, air quality, and decibel level once the place is finished. It asks for the company’s audited financial statements, who controls the company, and how many jobs it’ll have when it’s done – “excluding construction jobs.”

On September 30th, I asked MDEQ for anything xAI filed under that memo. They just sent me one document – and wrote that it’s “the only responsive document that we have for this request, at this time.”

It’s a two-page letter dated August 28th, signed by Jordan Buss, SpaceXAI’s senior director for environment, health, and safety. MDEQ stamped it as received on September 11th, so it came in well ahead of the 30 days.

Gipson asked them how much water, how much power, how loud, and how hot – and they sent him two pages of adjectives.

Let’s go down his list the way he wrote it.

Water – the memo asks for the sources and the “estimated uses.”

The letter says SpaceXAI uses “a mix of potable water and well water” for emissions controls, restrooms, and “closed-loop cooling systems.” That tells you the kinds of water – it doesn’t give a gallon.

Power – the memo asks for the sources, the uses, and the effect on people’s bills. The letter says the company’s “behind-the-meter” power “will ensure electricity rates will not increase,” that it signed something called the Ratepayer Protection Pledge, and that it’s spending “hundreds of millions of dollars” on the local grid. It includes no megawatt figure, no named fuel, and no turbine count.

Heat – the letter doesn’t mention heat at all.

Noise – the memo asks for a decibel level. The letter says “industry leading emission and noise controls,” and that’s the only time it mentions noise. It doesn’t include a decibel number anywhere.

Jobs – the memo asks for the total “excluding construction jobs.”

The letter says the company has created “thousands of well-paying jobs in construction, engineering, and operations.”

So the one kind of job the memo left out is right back in the answer. For what it’s worth – the Commercial Appeal reported this week that the state’s incentive deals for the two Southaven sites require a minimum of 20 new jobs at one and 10 at the other.

Money – the letter tells him to look up the company’s filings with the SEC, cause it went public this year – and the memo itself allows that. It says a company can point to its SEC filings for the financial statements. The rest of that section – who controls the company, and customer contracts if it sells data center services – the letter doesn’t touch.

Now the air – cause that’s where the letter makes its biggest claim.

The memo asks for the “known or estimated impact on air quality.”

The letter says the local air “continues to meet or exceed” the federal health standards set by EPA – and then it says, “This data is science-based and irrefutable.” It doesn’t attach any data, and it doesn’t name a monitor.

“Irrefutable”

This tracks with what I have been saying about the air all along – the rules and the studies are so convoluted that no one can really be held accountable for anything.

Now look at what MDEQ itself wrote about the air around this plant. In October 2025, in its comments on xAI’s air modeling for the permit, MDEQ wrote that “several monitors in the area are currently violating the 2015 ozone standard of 70 ppb, and the Hernando monitor in DeSoto County is exceeding the 2024 PM2.5 annual standard.” PM2.5 is the fine soot that gets deep into your lungs.

And that Hernando monitor is DeSoto County’s only one – it’s 11.7 miles south of the turbines. The only official monitor that’s closer is across the state line in Tennessee, at Riverview, 7.8 miles away – it only started reporting in August, and it only measures ozone.

The area isn’t legally labeled as failing those standards, and MDEQ’s letter doesn’t tie those readings to xAI’s turbines. But “irrefutable” is a big word to use about air with no official monitor within 11 miles.

The letter also calls the emission controls “industry leading.” The state’s own agreed order lists 14 of the 69 temporary turbines with the stronger pollution controls – the rest use water injection.

And there’s one more line that didn’t add up.

The letter says construction on the water recycling plant in Memphis “has remained ongoing for the last several months” and that SpaceXAI “will recommence major visible efforts in January 2027.”

Back in June, Mayor Young said xAI had “committed to a specific date to resume construction.” The letter’s word is “ongoing” – the mayor’s word was “resume.”

So what does the memo actually do?

Gipson wrote it “in my capacity as a statutory member” of the board – it’s one member saying what he needs before he votes. MDEQ didn’t send anything on whether it covers the hearing on November 9th and 10th – and the memo doesn’t say what happens when a company answers it like this.

That’s why it needs to be a real rule – with the numbers spelled out, and a permit that waits until they’re in.

The hearing is 30 days out on October 10th. MDEQ said this letter is all it has “at this time,” so something else could still come in before then.

But I keep coming back to that one word.

The company told a state official its air data was “irrefutable” – and the nearest official Mississippi monitor that could prove it either way is almost twelve miles down the road in Hernando.

And for the fine soot, the plan for their permanent turbine permit skipped measuring at the site and pointed to the monitor at Shelby Farms – 16 miles away in Memphis – instead.

And around and around we go.

Every record this essay is built on is on its own page, and the ones that exist nowhere else online are hosted there: the records behind this essay.

If you like facts-first info on all this, consider leaving a tip on Venmo or PayPal – this stuff takes a lot of time to put together. And check out everything I’ve written with citations and receipts at the xAI Files.

Sources

Everything I have written about AI is in one place at rachelandthecity.com/the-ai-files.

The xAI files

Sources

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