In the Colonial Hills subdivision of Southaven, Mississippi, residents have been presented with an offer from Elon Musk’s xAI to sell their homes. A local realtor said the company aims to acquire 418 properties, with 18 homeowners already having signed agreements. County records show five houses changed hands after October 9. The purchases are intended to clear space for staff housing linked to three new AI datacenters that have recently opened nearby.
Since July 2024, xAI has erected three large-scale facilities named Colossus I, Colossus II and Macrohardrr across the Memphis-Southaven conurbation. The sites are designed to host the computing clusters that power the company’s Grok chatbot. Musk reportedly spends up to four nights a week in an Airstream trailer in the Memphis area to supervise construction, underscoring his personal involvement in the rapid expansion of the AI infrastructure.
Three longtime residents filed a class-action suit in June, alleging “near-constant noise, vibrations and other nuisance-level harms” from a nearby power plant that runs gas turbines about half a mile from their homes. Plaintiff Jason Haley, who has owned his house for two decades, said the sound has become a daily distraction. xAI has denied the allegations, claiming it has installed sound-dampening walls and varied turbine output to reduce disturbance.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found dozens of temporary, truck-sized turbines operating at the site without required federal permits, leaving enforcement to the state. The Southern Environmental Law Center estimated emissions from those turbines cause $44 million in annual health costs. Environmental groups and the NAACP sued in federal court in April to stop turbine use; the Justice Department tried to block the case, citing national-security arguments tied to xAI’s technology. In July, xAI agreed with state regulators to replace the temporary units with a permanent gas-fired plant by next summer.
Mayor Darren Musselwhite has highlighted the projected tax revenue and job creation from the datacenters, saying noise levels have not exceeded the local 70-decibel limit. Critics note that recordings near the plant regularly show 50-decibel levels, which some studies link to health effects. While some residents, such as paramedic Gavin Foust, report elderly neighbors accepting offers, others like piano teacher Rose reject the proposal despite offers several times the home’s market value.