Public Health & Safety
Boxtown residents report breathing problems near xAI's Colossus turbines in Memphis
Partially confirmed
- Date
- 2025-08-11
- Location
- Memphis, Shelby County, Tennessee, United States
- Category
- Public Health & Safety
- POLLUTION
Evidence
- Did the harm happen?
- Alleged — not established
- Did the data center cause it?
- Possible
- AI connection
- Confirmed AI use
- What was affected
- Air, Human health
- Denials and outcomes
- AI connection documented: the sources for this record name the facility's AI purpose or its AI operator, so the connection is documented rather than inferred from the operator's size.
In August 2025, residents of the Boxtown neighborhood in southwest Memphis told WREG they had experienced more respiratory problems, including asthma attacks, since xAI began running gas turbines to power its Colossus AI data center. A University of Memphis study found most pollutant levels stayed below national standards. A health link has not been established. This is one of three separately documented events at xAI's Memphis-area campuses: the NAACP and Southern Environmental Law Center served a notice of intent to sue over unpermitted turbines at the South Memphis site in June 2025, a Reuters investigation reported in July 2026 that the turbine field serving Colossus 2 in Southaven, Mississippi is far larger than acknowledged, and the resulting Clean Air Act lawsuit was allowed to continue in October 2026.