xAI buys homes near its Mississippi datacenters: what residents were offered

Realtors working for xAI have been knocking on doors in Southaven, Mississippi, according to The Guardian. The pitch, as described to the paper, was to sell a house on condition that the owner agree not to join a lawsuit against the company over noise from its power plant.

The plan could cover almost all of Colonial Hills, a neighbourhood on the western edge of town. A realtor told one resident the target is 418 homes. Eighteen owners had already agreed to sell, per a recording of the conversation heard by the paper.

xAI did not respond to questions about those numbers or its plans for the area. It has previously said it intends to be a good neighbour and denies all claims in the noise lawsuit.

The homes will house xAI staff, according to the realtor and the local mayor. That fits a fast build-out: three of the company's datacenters have appeared in Southaven and adjoining Memphis, Tennessee, in just the past two years.

The power behind them comes from gas turbines installed without permits, the reporting says. Those turbines run around the clock, and that is the noise at the centre of the dispute.

Elizabeth Rose, a piano teacher who lives about two miles from the xAI site, described a continuous roar. She compared it to an airplane engine and said it has woken her at 2am and 3am.

The lawsuit is the residents' formal route to challenge it. The buyout offer is the other route, and the two are explicitly linked in the pitch described to the paper.

The condition is the story. Selling means giving up the right to join the noise lawsuit, according to the account given to residents.

xAI denies all claims in the lawsuit, so nothing here is settled.

The purchase figures rest on the recording and on the residents who spoke to The Guardian. xAI has not confirmed them, and did not respond to questions about the numbers or its plans for the neighbourhood.