Earlier this week, the Memphis Chamber of Commerce hosted an online webinar called “xAI: Asked & Answered.” For about 30 minutes, Chamber officials, scientists and business leaders calmly addressed many of the concerns residents have about xAI’s facility in Southwest Memphis.
Attempting to deliver that same information was quite a different task at Friday’s public hearing before the Shelby County Health Department at Fairley High School.
With hundreds filling Fairley High School’s auditorium, the atmosphere crackled with emotion. Residents sang civil rights hymns like, “We Shall Overcome” and “Amazing Grace.” They booed, they cheered, they shouted, they cried. Dozens made their concerns heard about air quality and water use, about perceived kickbacks and corporate bullies.
And when xAI representative Brent Mayo tried to deliver prepared remarks, the crowd drowned him out with jeers before he could finish introducing himself.
“I’m gonna say it even if you’re not gonna hear it,” Mayo said, trying to press forward. Moments later, he made a quick exit through a side door.
The passion was undeniable. So was the pain.
Southwest Memphis, and the 38109 ZIP code especially, has long borne the scars of environmental injustice. Generations of families have lived — and died — in the shadow of heavy industry, inhaling fumes from steel mills, chemical plants, oil refineries and power plants. Many speakers on Friday night shared haunting memories of growing up surrounded by pollution: of loved ones lost to cancer, of children born with breathing issues, of neighborhoods treated like sacrifice zones.
The arrival of xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by billionaire Elon Musk, has ignited those deep wounds anew.
“It’s not enough to just look forward,” said one professor from Rhodes College, who also serves on the board of the Lynching Sites Project of Memphis. “How do we look back and make sure Memphis is restored for what it has already suffered?”
The science and the skepticism
Ironically, if xAI’s claims — and the Shelby County Health Department’s findings — are accurate, the company’s supercomputer facility would likely be among the cleanest industrial operations the area has ever seen.
Dr. Michelle Taylor, director of the Shelby County Health Department, outlined the regulatory framework during the meeting. She explained that the 15 permanent natural gas turbines xAI seeks to install would be required to meet some of the strictest air quality standards under the Clean Air Act. The facility plans to use Selective Catalytic Reduction technology to lower nitrogen oxide emissions to 2 parts per million — far below the federal limit of 25 ppm.
The company also has committed to using a closed-loop water cooling system, rather than drawing fresh water from the Memphis Sand Aquifer, and has invested $80 million into building what could become the largest wastewater recycling facility in the world.
But none of that seemed to matter Friday night.
Time and again, the crowd dismissed technical assurances. Many residents made it clear their distrust runs too deep and their skepticism is too justified by history to simply take anyone’s word for it — no matter how many slides or scientists were involved.
“Science can’t fight feelings,” said Bobby White, chief government affairs officer for the Greater Memphis Chamber, in an exclusive interview outside the venue. “And I understand that. I love hearing people passionate about their community. But the truth is, these turbines are some of the cleanest in America. The science is solid.”
He paused, then added, “But when people have been hurt for generations, when you’ve been lied to or neglected over and over — it’s hard to hear that.”
The emotional weight of history
The turnout for the hearing reflected the broad cross-section of Memphis and Shelby County. Black, white, young, old. From Downtown to Orange Mound to Germantown, county residents came to make their voices heard. Their reasons varied, but the underlying theme was constant: a desire for dignity, respect, and environmental justice.
Speaker after speaker stepped to the mic, connecting xAI’s sudden and speedy arrival in 2024 to a longer, painful legacy of environmental injustice.
“My mother, my brother, two of my sisters died from cancer in 38109,” said one resident. “This is a bad area for breathing. We have been left behind.”
Another woman described waking up in the middle of the night, coughing uncontrollably. “The air stinks so bad, it wakes me out of my sleep,” she said.
A mid-speech chant broke out: “We don’t want it! We don’t want it!”
Some speakers, like State Representative Justin J. Pearson, were fiery and unrelenting. Pearson denounced the “political abandonment” that he said allowed communities like his to be poisoned in the first place.
“It’s time we tell the truth about our public institutions serving private interests,” Pearson shouted. “It’s time we tell the truth about how we’ve been dying from poison in our air for generations, at the hands of the very elected folks who were supposed to protect us!”
His brother, Keshaun Pearson, spearheads Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP), focused on grassroots organizing and legal challenges.
“We’re not just talking about permits,” Keshaun Pearson said. “We’re talking about whether our children get to breathe. We’re talking about whether our neighborhoods get to live. We’re talking about whether Memphis stands up for its people or sells them out one more time.”
Shelby County Commissioner Erika Sugarmon stood up for elected officials, saying: “WE found out when YOU found out!” she said. She added that she would be calling xAI representatives and Chamber officials to appear before the Shelby County Commission in the coming week. “We deserve answers. We deserve transparency,” she said.
One voice tried to inject a sobering note: a man who reminded the crowd that true justice would have to be won not by protest alone, but in federal court. “Justice happens most ideally in court, not through theatrics,” he said.
He was promptly booed, too. “I’m not your enemy,” he said as he left the mic.
White: ‘Science can’t fight feelings’
White’s was among the first faces shown in xAI’s webinar.. He’s a proponent of xAI’s arrival in Memphis. But he also touts his Southwest Memphis roots: His parents were educators at Doubletree Elementary and Westwood High.
“You can’t out-Southwest Memphis me,” White said. “I grew up right here, going to Western Park and ‘candy lady houses.’ Southwest Memphis is home to me. Always has been.”
White explained that the webinar was an attempt to address misinformation and concerns ahead of the hearing. “We wanted to get good, accurate information out there,” he said. “That’s why we brought in chemical engineers, environmental consultants, even professors from the University of Memphis who know the Clean Air Act backwards and forwards.
“We weren’t trying to hide anything.”
As for the science, White was blunt. “The turbines they’re talking about — two parts per million emissions,” he said. “The EPA standard is twenty-five parts per million. These turbines are the cleanest in America. They’re not even close to the kind of pollution people remember from the old steel mills and plants.
“But, again, I get it — science can’t fight feelings.”
Despite the tension, White remained hopeful.
“At the end of the day, we’re talking about the kind of investment Memphis has needed for a long time,” he said. “And sometimes blessings don’t come wrapped in the package you expect. I believe this can be good for the city, even if it doesn’t feel good right now.”
The unanswered questions
Even if the environmental science behind xAI’s project holds up, residents demanded to know: Why should they trust a system that has failed them time and again?
“This is a colonial mindset,” the Rhodes professor said. “They treat Memphis like a dumping ground because they always have.”
Others pointed to the culture of xAI itself. “Move fast and break things,” said Stephen Smith of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. “That’s what they’re doing. And our communities pay the price.”
A collision between two realities
By every technical measure, xAI appears to be playing by the rules. Their emissions are projected to be a fraction of older, dirtier industries. Their water practices are cutting-edge. And their economic impact is already significant: xAI is now the second-largest property taxpayer in Memphis, behind FedEx.
“At the end of the day, xAI has followed the rules,” White said. “They’ve played by the book. They’re doing exactly what the law and the regulations allow. They wouldn’t be able to do what they’re doing if they weren’t compliant.”
In Southwest Memphis, where memories of pollution-related suffering linger like the smog itself, facts and figures alone aren’t enough. Trust has been broken too many times. The community demands more than data; it demands dignity, justice, and a seat at the table.
Friday night wasn’t just a public hearing. It was a cry for recognition — an urgent, collective demand that Memphis stop sacrificing Black and poor communities in the name of “progress.”
As the night wore on, as chants filled the auditorium and emotions ran high, the fault lines were clear: Between science and skepticism. Between economic development and environmental justice. Between a city hungry for growth and a community that refuses to be collateral damage.
“I think people have to come to the realization that change — real change — comes from changing policy, not yelling at companies that are playing by the rules,” White said. “xAI has been in compliance with the law from Day One.
“If we want different outcomes, we have to change the laws that govern these outcomes.”
This story has been updated to correct the name of the xAI representative who spoke at the public hearing.
