The world's largest supercomputer is in Southwest Memphis, TN with massive demands for power & water.
In June 2024, the Memphis Chamber of Commerce held a press conference to announce a new company coming to town: Elon Musk's xAI gigafactory. This aims to be the world's largest supercomputer to provide the commuting power needed for AI searches on X (formerly Twitter), the chatbot Grok, and other forms of machine learning like self-driving cars.
xAI has purchased the former Electrolux building on Riverport Road, next door to the City of Memphis TE Maxson Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) and the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) Allen Combined Cycle Power Plant. The company needs 300MW of energy - enough to power 200,000 homes, while their peak water demand is expected to be near 5 million gallons per day to cool the supercomputer.
Within a day of the announcement, Memphis Light, Gas, & Water (MLGW) released a statement explaining that xAI was interested in using recycled water from the WWTP next door. This was the first time MLGW had released a public statement in support of this water reuse facility!
xAI could be the catalyst for POA’s long-standing campaign to develop a recycled wastewater facility - aka water reuse.
There is known arsenic in the shallow aquifer at TVA's coal ash ponds and another source of arsenic in the shallow aquifer right above the Davis Wellfield. The more aquifer pumping in the area, the higher likelihood that toxic element will be pulled down into the drinking water supply.
POA and our partners at Memphis Community Against Pollution and Young, Gifted & Green released a statement the day of the announcement asking critical questions and encouraging the public to ensure xAI operates in a reasonable and thoughtful manner in Memphis.
A new building was purchased in southwest Memphis to bring in another 350,000 GPU -- creating a new 260MW energy demand that MLGW is currently studying. The Memphis Chamber of Commerce announced in their December 2024 luncheon that xAI plans to have 1 million microchips without any explanation of the amount of water or energy needed for such a project. Other Elon Musk-backed enterprises are known to move at similar speeds with little to no community involved. Fortunately, xAI will not have the same levels of hazardous materials on site as Tesla factories, or SpaceX. The Washington Post has reported that companies owned by Musk in Texas have numerous water quality violations and we do not want the same to happen here in Memphis.
Data centers in general use a lot of electricity and water. This growing trend for commuting power has major tech companies looking for locations with access to reliable power and a plentiful water supply. We're not sure Memphis is prepared for the world's largest supercomputer without compromising resident's access to power and water.
The building that xAI now occupies is in an area zoned "heavy industrial", meaning there are many uses of this facility that do not need permits or any approvals from the local Land Use Control Board or the Memphis City Council. That was likely a reason this deal was kept so secret, without knowledge of even Memphis elected officials.
It is normal for economic development projects to have code names and be kept from the public while certain negotiations are occurring. But there is a level of public scrutiny these private dealings must comply with - especially in relation to contracts with public assets.
It has now been widely reported that the MLGW President was a part of this economic development deal where MLGW agreed to:
POA and our partners raised these concerns and others in a letter submitted to the MLGW Board on June 19, 2024. Our questions have yet to be answered.
Initially a water demand of over 1 million gallons per day could have negative, if not detrimental, affects to the drinking water supply for southwest Memphis. That figure has grown to 5.7 million gallons of water per day to align with the expansion goals. During Christmas 2022, a winter storm impacted the electric grid, causing TVA to implement rolling blackouts and another water crisis with a boil water notice and many residents without water at all. Similar scenarios have played out every winter since 2021, proving that TVA's reliance on our drinking water infrastructure to generate power causes serious vulnerabilities to the community.
In 2023, POA resurrected the campaign for TVA to use recycled wastewater, resulting in 76 letters to the MLGW Board, numerous articles, and public comments. This facility is a real solution to protect the quantity as well as quality of our drinking water and to serve as an economic-development tool for other industries with environmental commitments.
Reclaimed wastewater must go through additional treatment that would further clean up the wastewater effluent. This water doesn’t have to be up to drinking-water standards, but it has to be cleaner than what is currently discharged into the Mississippi River. Otherwise, the water will scale and generally “gunk up” the cooling water recirculation system or other machinery and can be an expensive, ongoing maintenance issue for TVA, xAI and other industries using reclaimed water.
The proximity of xAI, TVA, and even NuCor Steel provides the opportunity to reduce reliance on our drinking water infrastructure by building a shared reuse facility at the WWTP.
We understand that both xAI and the City of Memphis are pursuing preliminary engineering studies to develop a water reuse facility. It seems as though they are competing with each other to build the facility.
POA supports water reuse, but we need to ensure the facility has a solid financial backing and follows the community's concern with xAI owning it.
A land deal, permits, and access agreements are all still pending. POA plans to watch this closely and intervene to ensure Memphians and our Aquifer are protected!
With more power generation, more air pollution is likely to follow.
Southwest Memphis is already overburdened with air pollution and increased generation from TVA's plant will exacerbate those emissions. It is unclear if xAI plans to build any solar farms or cover the building rooftop with solar. Fossil fuels are the primary source -- and more datacenter power demand could mean more polluting power generation.
There is a massive gap in the available power to the site and the power the company needs. xAI is running "temporary" gas turbines and without public involvement, xAI is building out capacity at a nearby MLGW substation.
Our partners at Memphis Community Against Pollution are leading the charge against the dirty, polluting gas turbines and pushing for renewable energy.
Local hiring has begun, although there seem to be few local jobs and no commitment to hire locally from the impacted communities in southwest Memphis.
The days of using drinking water for industrial cooling must come to an end - and it appears xAI agrees. Now, we need follow through and a transparent, equitable process to ensure the public can manage and maintain the water reuse facility.
So how can you play a part? First, acknowledge water quality and quantity are connected.
Attend an MLGW Board meeting and make a public comment.
Reach out to your Memphis City Council representatives and express your concerns or ideas.
