xAI Runs 62 Unpermitted Gas Turbines as Grok Slides to Fifth Place
Summary
- • xAI operates 62 unpermitted methane gas turbines in Memphis and Southaven, powering Colossus supercomputers for Grok
- • Facilities projected to emit 6M+ tons of greenhouse gases and 1,300+ tons of air pollutants annually per xAI permit applications
- • Grok fell from 2nd to 5th most-popular AI chatbot by April 2026; monthly active users dropped 12.5% to 12.2M vs. Claude's 23M
- • xAI selling unused Colossus compute to a company Musk called 'misanthropic and evil'; bought $2.8B more gas turbines
- • SpaceX S-1 shows xAI spent $697M on Tesla Megapacks but made no material solar panel purchases
Details
62 unpermitted methane turbines power xAI's Colossus data centers in Memphis and Southaven
The turbines train and run Grok. Per xAI's own permit applications, combined facilities could emit 6M+ tons of greenhouse gases and 1,300+ tons of health-harming air pollutants per year.
EPA closed the regulatory loophole xAI exploited in January 2026; turbines reportedly still running as of February
Thermal drone footage from February 2026 showed turbines continuing to operate post-closure. NAACP and Earthjustice have sought emergency court action to halt the illegal pollution.
xAI ordered $2.8B more gas turbines; spent $697M on Tesla Megapacks but no material solar purchases
According to the SpaceX S-1 filing, xAI made no materially significant solar panel purchases from Tesla despite Tesla being Musk's own clean energy company. SpaceX separately spent $131M on 1,279 Cybertrucks.
Grok fell from 2nd to 5th most-popular AI chatbot globally by April 2026; downloads down 60%
Monthly active users dropped 12.5% in a single month to 12.2 million. Earlier rankings were inflated by X auto-replies. Claude surged 44% to 23 million users in the same period, surpassing Grok by nearly 2x.
xAI selling unused Colossus compute to a company Musk called 'misanthropic and evil'
The deal implies xAI has significant excess capacity relative to demand, raising questions about the business case for the infrastructure buildout. Musk had publicly disparaged the buyer roughly three months prior.
Article argues xAI's fossil fuel buildout directly contradicts Tesla's founding 'solar electric economy' mission
Author cites Musk's 2017 NGA speech, Tesla's 2006 Master Plan, the $2.6B SolarCity acquisition, and Tesla's 2023 Master Plan Part 3 — all framing fossil fuel elimination as the company's core purpose — as context for the scale of the contradiction.
SpaceX filed for a $2 trillion IPO as Musk pitches space-based solar
The space solar pitch coincides with xAI's current reliance on gas turbines, which the article frames as aspirational clean energy rhetoric disconnected from operational decisions.
Infrastructure = physical systems, Legal = regulatory/court actions, Financials = spending/procurement, Market Impact = user/competitive metrics, Strategy = business positioning, Insight = attributed analysis from source, Context = background shaping the story
What This Means
This opinion piece argues that xAI's infrastructure buildout represents a meaningful divergence from the clean energy commitments that defined Musk's public brand for over a decade — with real environmental and legal consequences currently playing out in Memphis and Southaven. For AI practitioners, the Grok usage numbers are the most actionable signal: the widening gap between Grok's 12.2 million and Claude's 23 million monthly active users, combined with excess compute being offloaded to a competitor, suggests the massive capital deployment behind Colossus has not yet translated into proportional user demand. Whether the environmental violations result in regulatory action could also constrain xAI's infrastructure expansion timeline.