Elon Musk's xAI faces tougher road building out data centers after EPA rule update [View all]
Source: CNBC
The Environmental Protection Agency closed a loophole this week that Elon Musk’s xAI had exploited to rapidly stand up its first data center in Memphis, Tennessee.
Musk’s artificial intelligence startup created a kind of off-grid power plant for its Colossus facility by using a cluster of gas-burning turbines. The company was able to avoid air pollution permitting by classifying the turbines, which were mounted on trailers, as “non-road engines.”
The EPA’s updated rule clarifies that those kinds of turbines can’t be designated as non-road engines and companies must also obtain Clean Air Act permits before installing them, particularly if their aggregate emissions will go above “major source thresholds” of pollution.
-snip-
The move by the federal regulator could slow xAI’s expansion in the Memphis area as it builds out facilities, packed with Nvidia’s graphics processing units, to develop AI models and services in a booming generative AI market currently led by OpenAI and Google.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/01/16/musks-xai-faces-tougher-road-expanding-memphis-area-after-epa-update.html
= new reply since forum marked as read