"The company, xAI, has installed several dozen turbines in Memphis without proper permits, the group said, polluting a nearby community." 

"Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, which runs the Grok chatbot, is facing a legal challenge led by the NAACP over air pollution from its supercomputer facility in Memphis.

xAI’s South Memphis data center, near predominantly Black neighborhoods, has been operating natural-gas-burning turbines without the proper permits, the NAACP alleged in a notice of an intent to sue filed on Tuesday. Those turbines were sending noxious emissions toward local homes, said Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP.

“We cannot afford to normalize this kind of environmental injustice, where billion-dollar companies set up polluting operations in Black neighborhoods without any permits and think they’ll get away with it,” he said.

In a statement, xAI said that it took its environmental commitments seriously, as well as its responsibility to the local community. “The temporary power generation units are operating in compliance with all applicable laws,” the company statement said."

Hiroko Tabuchi reports for the New York Times June 17, 2025. [2]