The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality on Thursday announced a schedule to retire the 69 controversial, temporary gas generators in Southaven that xAI is using to power its data centers. Yet the agency is allowing some of the turbines to run past their original deadline by as much as five months.
In the order, the Elon Musk-owned data center company agreed to begin retiring the units on Aug 18.
Since August 2025, xAI — through a subsidiary, MZX Tech — has run trailer-mounted natural gas turbines to power its centers just across the state line in Memphis. The company is also planning a new center in Southaven as part of its vision to create the world’s largest “integrated supercomputer.”
XAI, though, has no air permit to run any of the 69 turbines. For the past year, Southaven residents have repeatedly raised alarms over unchecked, toxic releases from the facility, including chemicals such as nitrogen oxides that can cause respiratory issues. Neighbors have also complained about a constant humming noise coming from the power plant.
When the company first arrived to Southaven last year, MDEQ told xAI that it wouldn’t need a permit because the generators were “mobile” — they’re attached to trailers — and because they’re “temporary,” meaning they would run for less than 12 months. The permit exemption was “contingent” on those two factors, the agency wrote.
But in the July 30 order, the state agency said it would allow 13 of the generators to keep running past the original 12-month deadline. Under the newly agreed retirement schedule, three of those turbines can remain active up to five months longer.
The site of a planned xAI facility at 2400 Stateline Road in Southaven, Tuesday, Feb. 17. 2026. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi TodayThe company requested the extension because of supply chain issues delaying 41 permanent turbines, which will have air permits, xAI is planning to bring to Southaven, the order said.
Mississippi Today asked MDEQ why the it chose to extend the deadline, but the agency declined to expand on what was in the order.
The most recently added temporary turbines, which came online earlier this month, will have to cease functions by July 14, 2027. A majority of the units will have to retire by next April.
Originally, xAI brought 18 generators to the Southaven facility last August. But the company slowly added more and more turbines, and did so without giving prior notice to the state. In May, after the number of units grew to 46, MDEQ told Mississippi Today that xAI didn’t have to notify the agency when it added more “temporary-mobile” turbines. When asked about any limit on the number of generators xAI could have without a permit, MDEQ said it was “evaluating the situation.”
Civil rights groups, environmental attorneys and Southaven residents have all contested MDEQ’s assertion that the xAI units do not need air permits. The NAACP filed a federal complaint over the matter in April, and locals near the facility followed suit in June.
Shannon Samsa gives her comments during a Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality public hearing on an xAI permit application at Northwest Mississippi Community College in Southaven on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi TodayLawyers with the Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of the NAACP, argued MDEQ is misinterpreting a federal exemption that allows “portable” “nonroad engines” to run without a permit. That distinction is reserved for much smaller generators, they argued. Moreover, the Clean Air Act defines “stationary” turbines as “not self-propelled or intended to be propelled,” adding that they can be “mounted on a vehicle,” such as a trailer.
In a Thursday statement on its website, the company detailed efforts to address community concerns.
“We are rapidly removing these mobile turbines as we bring online permanent power from a 1.2 (gigawatt) power plant we are constructing under our Clean Air Act permit,” the statement said, adding that xAI was investing in new emission control technology to equip the mobile units with.
The company also said it was “investing millions of dollars in sound walls, silencers, and next-generation turbines with advanced quieting technologies through partnerships with the surrounding community.”
“We care deeply about being good neighbors and we regularly reconfigure power operations to reduce noise from the facility and minimize our impact on the local Southaven community,” xAI wrote.
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