Data Center Registry

Colossus

Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee · All 5 xAI sites · Every xAI case on our tracker

OperatingIn litigationAI confirmedRecord updated October 16, 2026

Colossus is an operating data center in Memphis, Tennessee (Shelby County), operated by xAI. The public record puts it at announced 2024, 1.2 GW planned, a reported $12 billion investment. It is or has been the subject of litigation over its siting, permitting, or operation.

Every line on this page traces to a public source listed at the bottom. Where a figure was looked for and not found, the row says so. A blank is never a zero.

Facility record

Operating

Operator: xAI
Facility type: Data center, AI use confirmed
Location: Memphis, Shelby County, TN
Coordinates: 35.0565, -90.0148
Power capacity: 150 MW operating; 1.2 GW planned
Land: Not established from a public source
Investment: $12 billion
Announced: 2024
Utility: Memphis Light Gas & Water (MLGW) / TVA
Power source: Mixed
On site generation: 422 MW
Cooling: Evaporative
Water use: 3 million gallons a day, reported
Jobs: Not established from a public source
Public subsidy: Not established from a public source
Community reception: In litigation
Source confidence: Reported by at least one credible outlet or filing

Timeline from the record

Newest first. Record entries come from the filings and reports the registry cites. Coverage entries are headlines from publisher feeds we monitor daily, linked to the outlet; last checked September 14, 2026.

September 11, 2026
Coverage
xAI has quietly built a massive battery at its Memphis data center hub · Canary Media
September 2024
Operating
Phase 1 online with ~100,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs; later expanded with H200s Source: Reuters
June 2024
Under construction
Construction began; completed in approximately 122 days Source: Wikipedia

Opposition and litigation at this site

Yes. Colossus in Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee is or has been the subject of litigation over its siting, permitting, or operation. The NAACP (with SELC and Earthjustice) sued xAI over roughly 35 unpermitted methane gas turbines; the county permitted only 15, and the Memphis and Shelby County Air Pollution Control Board dismissed the NAACP/Young, Gifted & Green appeal of that permit as moot on 2025-12-15 (6-1).

How the community has taken it

Reception is a sourced signal, not an editorial judgment: in litigation means the facility is or has been the subject of a lawsuit related to its siting, permitting, or operation.

The NAACP (with SELC and Earthjustice) sued xAI over roughly 35 unpermitted methane gas turbines; the county permitted only 15, and the Memphis and Shelby County Air Pollution Control Board dismissed the NAACP/Young, Gifted & Green appeal of that permit as moot on 2025-12-15 (6-1). The permit drew 1,700+ public comments, most opposed, and South Memphis (Boxtown) residents already face elevated asthma and cancer rates. xAI did not pursue a Shelby County EDGE PILOT tax abatement; no public subsidy is on record.

Source: CNBC

Power and water

About 35 on-site natural-gas turbines (a combined 422 MW per SELC and aerial imagery) supplement a 150 MW grid substation and Tesla Megapack storage. The Shelby County Health Department permitted only 15 turbines; the SELC/NAACP/Young, Gifted & Green appeal of that permit was dismissed as moot by the Memphis and Shelby County Air Pollution Control Board on a 6-1 vote on 2025-12-15 (after the health department and xAI argued most turbines had been removed), ending the appeal-triggered stay and leaving the permit in force; press at the time reported 12 SCR-equipped turbines still active and a permit expiring 2027-01-02. TVA's board voted unanimously on 2026-02-11 to approve an additional 150 MW of firm power, which would double the approved grid allocation to about 300 MW; that approval is contingent on contractual, financial and operational requirements and is a ceiling, not delivered power, as of 2026-09-23 no source reports the second increment energized, and the site is still described as taking 150 MW from the grid. xAI said the Phase-I temporary turbines would be demobilized after grid connection, but 2025 aerial imagery shows 35 on site.

The open cooling loop's design draw is roughly 3 MGD from the Memphis Sands aquifer via MLGW (xAI engineer, per Governing), though Protect Our Aquifer reported a lower early-operational actual of ~0.8 MGD (~812,000 gal/day) in early 2025 as the site was still ramping. xAI broke ground in Oct 2025 on an $80M greywater-recycling plant at the T.E. Maxson wastewater facility (targeting ~10 MGD of treated wastewater); construction was later paused.

People and entities in the record

Elon Musk · executive via xAI
Runs xAI, the company operating this facility; CNBC, reporting the Shelby County turbine-permit appeal, describes "xAI, which is run by Elon Musk" as having set up in Memphis in 2024.
Source

Notes on the record

xAI did not obtain a PILOT or any other formally granted incentive for the Memphis site, unlike the usual Memphis path, so no subsidy is recorded, as a known absence rather than an unknown; the site is instead expected to pay more than $30 million in combined Memphis and Shelby County property taxes. A federal Clean Air Act suit filed 2026-04-14 (NAACP v. X.AI Corp. and MZX Tech LLC, No. 3:26-cv-00074, N.D. Miss.) targets xAI's separate 'Colossus Gas Plant' in Southaven, Mississippi (MZX Tech LLC, 2875 Stanton Road South), not this site or CTC Property LLC; it cites this site's turbine history only as background. Permit-level detail for this site's turbines, including that the permit covers 15 turbines on a permanent basis, is in the companion record CTC Property Gas Turbine Plant (Colossus 1).

What the record does not establish, and the document that would

In every fight on our tracker the decisive fact came out of a public records request. These are the requests for this site.

Tax abatements or other public subsidy
Permanent jobs promised
Land area

Which document closes each gap

Tax abatements or other public subsidy: The abatement, PILOT, or development agreement approved by the county, city, or development authority, and the state's data center sales tax exemption certificate if one was issued.
Permanent jobs promised: The economic development application or incentive agreement, which usually states a job commitment and a clawback.
Land area: The rezoning application, the plat, or the deed recorded with the county.

Have one of these documents? Send it to us and we will add it to the record with attribution.

Other sites within 30 miles

Distances are between recorded coordinates, many of which are a city or county centroid, so treat them as approximate. Cumulative load on one utility and one aquifer is the question a planning commission rarely asks.

Colossus 2 (Whitehaven) · Memphis · xAI4 mi · Operating
Minihard · Memphis · xAI4 mi · Under construction
MACROHARDRR (xAI Southaven) · Southaven · xAI4 mi · Under construction
5C MEM01 Memphis (former Fred's headquarters) · Memphis · 5C Data Centers5 mi · Operating · 20 MW
xAI Tulane Road Data Center (Southaven) · Southaven · xAI (SpaceXAI)5 mi · Permitted
Neural Nexus Innovation District · Memphis · Legacy Power Capital6 mi · Proposed · Mixed reception
EdgeConneX Memphis (EDCMEM01) · Memphis · EdgeConneX7 mi · Operating
Connect Data Centers Memphis (3900 S. Mendenhall Road) · Memphis · Connect Data Centers (Oppidan Investment Company)8 mi · Operating

Tell us about your situation

Living near Colossus?

Tell us the basics. Where a participating attorney in your state is available, we may share your information with them with your consent. Free, no obligation, and no guarantee anyone will contact you.

By checking this box and submitting this form, I provide my electronic signature and my express written consent to receive calls and text messages about my potential claim from SueDataCenters.org (Theory Road LLC) and, where one is available for my situation, a participating attorney or law firm or their agents at the phone number I provided, including calls and texts made using an automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded voice, even if my number is on a federal, state, or company Do Not Call list. My consent is not a condition of submitting this form or of purchasing any goods or services. Message frequency varies, message and data rates may apply, and I can reply STOP to opt out or HELP for help at any time. I agree to the Privacy Policy and Advertising Disclosure and understand my information may be shared with a participating attorney, and with the other parties described there, as those documents explain. Submitting does not create an attorney-client relationship, and no one is guaranteed to contact me. See our Privacy Policy and Advertising Disclosure.

Questions people ask about this site

Is there opposition to the Colossus data center in Memphis?

Has anyone filed a lawsuit over the Colossus data center?

Yes. This site is recorded as being in litigation. The case, the court, and the filings we hold are listed on this page under the timeline and the sources.

How much water does Colossus use?

3 million gallons a day is the reported figure on record. Cooling is recorded as evaporative. The open cooling loop's design draw is roughly 3 MGD from the Memphis Sands aquifer via MLGW (xAI engineer, per Governing), though Protect Our Aquifer reported a lower early-operational actual of ~0.8 MGD (~812,000 gal/day) in early 2025 as the site was still ramping.

Who operates Colossus, and how big is it?

xAI is the operator on record. We hold 5 sites for that company across the registry. Capacity on record is 1.2 GW.

How to cite this page

SueDataCenters.org Data Center Registry, "Colossus," updated October 16, 2026, https://suedatacenters.org/data-centers/xai-colossus-memphis-tn.

Facility data from Compute Atlas (E. Kubiak), version 1.34.1 (October 4, 2026), licensed CC BY 4.0, record https://www.compute-atlas.com/facilities/xai-colossus-memphis-tn, retrieved October 29, 2026.

Corrections with a public source are welcome at the Compute Atlas record or through our contact page. The whole registry is available as CSV and JSON under CC BY 4.0.

Sources for this record

As compiled and cited by Compute Atlas, with our own reporting appended. Archived links are used where the original has moved.

1.Colossus (supercomputer), Wikipedia · Wikipedia · retrieved August 16, 2026
2.Musk says xAI has built world's most powerful AI training cluster, Reuters · Reuters · retrieved July 5, 2026 · original offline, no archived copy found
3.xAI doubles number of on-site gas turbines at Memphis data center in violation of permit limits, Data Center Dynamics · Data Center Dynamics · retrieved July 6, 2026
4.Wastewater Will Cool This Memphis Data Center, Governing · Governing · retrieved July 6, 2026
5.Musk's xAI permits challenged by NAACP, environmental groups in Memphis, CNBC · CNBC · retrieved July 6, 2026
6.Here's what xAI will pay in property taxes · Daily Memphian · retrieved September 9, 2026

Is a data center disrupting your home?

Tell us what is happening. Where a participating attorney who handles data center cases in your state is available, we may share your information with them with your consent. It is free and carries no obligation, but we cannot promise that anyone will contact you.

Tell us about your situation
|
Independent attorneys
|
No obligation

Tell us about your situation Do I even have a case?

Attorney or law firm handling data center matters? Speak with us