A Tennessee neighborhood takes on Musk's xAI Colossus supercomputer in its fight for clean air

Elon Musk's xAI says it’s working collaboratively with local officials, but residents of Boxtown, a long-neglected area in South Memphis, remain wary.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Homes without indoor plumbing. Few streetlights. Virtually no public transportation. Half a century ago, residents of Boxtown, a neighborhood in South Memphis settled by formerly enslaved families, felt forgotten by the modern age. But no longer.  

They are now at the center of a battle with the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, who built what his company xAI has dubbed the world’s largest supercomputer, Colossus, roughly 2 miles away.  

City leaders see Musk’s arrival in Memphis, Tennessee, as a coronation of its future economy, a chance to transform the region into a “high-tech manufacturing hub.” Like their counterparts in Austin, Texas, and Atlanta, they were eager to recruit tech companies looking for homes outside Silicon Valley. Musk’s xAI would bring tax revenue and new jobs.  

“It represents a tremendous opportunity,” Mayor Paul Young recently told NBC Nightly News, “an opportunity for us to take our economy to the next level.”