In short
- Colossus started in 2024 in a closed appliance factory in Memphis, Tennessee, and has grown into two sites. The second one is powered by gas turbines across the state line in Southaven, Mississippi.
- Most of the headline numbers are the companies’ own. Where two numbers disagree, this page names who said each one and when.
- The turbines are the subject of a federal Clean Air Act lawsuit, NAACP v. xAI Corp. These are allegations. No court has ruled on them.
- Anthropic, the company that makes Claude, is a customer at the site. Deyron Labs uses Claude, which is why this page starts with a disclosure.
Disclosure
Deyron Labs uses Claude, made by Anthropic. Anthropic is a customer at the site covered in this episode. We stick to documented facts and always say whose numbers they are. We do not present the deal as good or bad. The narration in the video is an AI-generated voice.
Why Memphis: speed
According to reporting, Elon Musk was told that a new data center would take 18 to 24 months to build. But a building was already standing: a former Electrolux appliance factory in South Memphis, about 785,000 square feet, closed since 2020. The Greater Memphis Chamber announced the project in June 2024.
Colossus 1: the numbers
The first site, Colossus 1, was built with partners including Dell and Supermicro. Supermicro’s CEO has said the first phase took 122 days. In May 2026, Anthropic described the site as more than 300 megawatts, with over 220,000 Nvidia GPUs. Those are the companies’ figures, not an independent measurement.
The turbines in Memphis
AI at this scale needs power the grid cannot deliver overnight, so xAI brought in gas turbines. The Southern Environmental Law Center says they ran for months without an air permit. In July 2025, Shelby County issued a permit covering 15 turbines. xAI said its on-site power would use advanced emissions controls and called the site the lowest-emitting of its kind. Local groups disagree.
Colossus 2: one site, two numbers
Colossus 2 is a second building, several miles away, in the Whitehaven neighborhood. Data Center Dynamics reported that it came online in January 2026. Musk said it offered one gigawatt at launch. Satellite images taken that month reportedly showed cooling equipment for about 350 megawatts. Two numbers, one site. That is why, in this series, we always say who said what.
Southaven, Mississippi
The power for Colossus 2 comes from across the state line. In Southaven, about a mile from the data center according to the Southern Environmental Law Center, xAI installed gas turbines starting in summer 2025. Mississippi treated them as temporary mobile units, which can run up to a year without an air permit.
In March 2026, the state permit board unanimously approved 41 permanent turbines, with emissions controls required. By May, the state said the temporary count was 46. By 31 July, state documents reported by the Mississippi Free Press showed 69 on the site. Other counts exist too: court filings in June referred to 57, and an analysis of satellite images by Cleanview counted 59 in mid-May. The rule on this page is always who counted, and when. There is no single “current” number.
The lawsuit
In April, the NAACP, represented by Earthjustice and the Southern Environmental Law Center, sued xAI under the Clean Air Act, arguing that the temporary turbines needed permits. The complaint seeks penalties of up to $124,400 per day of violation (the video rounds this to $124,000). xAI maintains it is not breaking the law and says the turbines are temporary until a permanent plant is finished, expected early next year according to court documents. In June, the Justice Department, Mississippi’s governor and a Pentagon official all asked the court to dismiss the case, citing national security.
A hearing on the NAACP’s request to stop the turbines was set for 24 August. It was postponed, and in the latest reports we found, it has not been rescheduled. These are allegations. No court has ruled on them. Status as of 12 October 2026; see the updates log below for anything that has changed since.
In Washington, the top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Frank Pallone, wrote to Musk in late July asking for records and a tour of the sites. CNBC reported that SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment.
The people nearby, and the water
The Commercial Appeal reported that about 22,000 people live within five miles of the original site. In Southaven, residents filed a class action in June over near-constant noise and vibration. According to a letter shared with the Mississippi Free Press, an xAI subsidiary offered to buy out residents who agree not to join it.
Water is the other fight. Protect Our Aquifer, a local advocacy group, says xAI’s Memphis operations now draw more than 800,000 gallons a day from the Memphis Sand Aquifer (the group’s figure: 812,502). A water-recycling plant meant to reduce that was paused, and Musk said finishing Colossus 2 comes first. Those are the group’s and local reporters’ figures, not xAI’s.
The Anthropic deal and the money
On 6 May 2026, Anthropic announced it would use all the compute at Colossus 1, to run Claude. The deal was later expanded to include Colossus 2, about 325,000 GPUs in total, according to SpaceX’s IPO filing. The filing says Anthropic pays $1.25 billion a month through May 2029, and either side can end the deal with 90 days’ notice. xAI itself had been folded into SpaceX in February.
SpaceX’s filing says its own Grok 5 model is being trained on Colossus 2. Musk said SpaceX could reclaim compute if the AI took actions that harm humanity. Google signed a similar deal, worth $920 million a month starting in October. And Anthropic said it is interested in something stranger: orbital AI compute, multiple gigawatts, in space. Interest, not a commitment.
300 megawatts in perspective
If 300 megawatts ran flat out, around the clock, that is the average electricity use of about 240,000 American homes. The calculation uses the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s 2022 average of 10,791 kilowatt-hours per home per year: that is about 1.23 kilowatts on average, and 300,000 kilowatts divided by 1.23 is roughly 244,000 homes. The EIA figure is official data; the comparison is our own calculation.
But the grid has to be built for the peak, not the average. That is why the real race is called speed to power: whoever can connect or generate megawatts fastest gets to switch on the GPUs first.
Figures and whose figures they are
| Figure | Who says it | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 122 days for the first phase of Colossus 1 | Supermicro’s CEO | Company claim |
| More than 300 MW and over 220,000 Nvidia GPUs at Colossus 1 | Anthropic, announcement of 6 May 2026 (as quoted by Axios) | Company figure |
| About 325,000 GPUs in total for Anthropic | SpaceX IPO filing | As cited by an analysis of the filing |
| $1.25 billion a month through May 2029; 90 days’ notice | SpaceX IPO filing, quoted by Simon Willison | Amount confirmed by Anthropic to Business Insider |
| $920 million a month from October 2026 (Google) | Verdict, citing Reuters and the amended filing | Reported |
| One gigawatt at launch (Colossus 2) | Elon Musk | Claim |
| About 350 MW of cooling equipment (Colossus 2) | Satellite images from January 2026, reported by Data Center Dynamics | Reported |
| 15 turbines permitted in Memphis, July 2025 | Shelby County health department permit, via CNBC | Permit |
| 41 permanent turbines approved in Southaven, March 2026 | Mississippi state permit board | Reported by SELC and Mississippi outlets |
| 46 temporary turbines, May 2026 | Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality | Reported |
| 69 turbines on site, 31 July 2026 | State documents reported by the Mississippi Free Press | Reported |
| Penalties up to $124,400 per day of violation | The NAACP complaint | Allegation |
| About 22,000 people within five miles | The Commercial Appeal | Reported |
| More than 800,000 gallons of water a day | Protect Our Aquifer | Advocacy group’s figure, not xAI’s |
| 300 MW is about 240,000 American homes | EIA 2022 average, our calculation | Our estimate |
What we’re watching
- A ruling on the NAACP’s request for an injunction.
- Whether the permanent power plant opens on schedule.
- Whether Colossus 2 has the power for the chips Musk says are coming: 220,000 more within weeks, and as many again in November, he said in September.
The video ends by teasing the next episode: AI Infrastructure goes somewhere new.
Credits
Aerial imagery in the video: Google Earth, shown through Google Earth Studio with the Google Earth logo visible. The imagery shown predates the data center conversions and is labeled as such. Graphics and music: Deyron Labs (original). The narration is AI-generated. Stories and corrections follow the policy on our About page.
Sources
- U.S. Department of Justice filing in NAACP v. xAI Primary source , U.S. Department of Justice
- How much electricity does an American home use? Primary source , U.S. Energy Information Administration
- NAACP Sues xAI over illegal power plant Earthjustice (counsel for the NAACP)
- NAACP launches Clean Air lawsuit over xAI Colossus data center (14 Apr 2026) Bloomberg Law
- Trump DOJ says xAI gas turbines are key for national security Bloomberg Government
- Department of Justice sides with xAI in Mississippi case (16 Jun 2026) Mississippi Today
- DOJ may intervene in xAI case (25 May 2026) Mississippi Today
- Reporting on the injunction request, the Southaven class action and the buy-out letter Mississippi Free Press
- xAI built an illegal power plant to power its data center Southern Environmental Law Center
- Musk's xAI scores permit for gas-burning turbines in Memphis (Shelby County permit) CNBC via NBC San Diego
- SpaceX's Memphis AI data centers face House Energy and Commerce demands (29 Jul 2026) CNBC
- xAI plans third data center; Musk claims capacity of almost 2 GW Data Center Dynamics
- xAI to spend $659m on new building for Memphis data center cluster Data Center Dynamics
- Anthropic to rent all AI capacity at SpaceX's Colossus data center Yahoo Finance
- Elon Musk's SpaceX to power Anthropic's Claude in surprise AI deal Decrypt
- SpaceX's S-1 (quotes from the IPO filing, 20 May 2026) Simon Willison
- SpaceX signs deal with Google Verdict
- Musk says Colossus 2 plans to add Nvidia AI chips by end of 2026 Finviz
- Behind-the-meter data centers: Colossus (turbine count from satellite imagery) Cleanview
Updates and corrections
No updates or corrections since publication.