Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. The U.S. Department of Justice is intervening on behalf of Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company in a lawsuit filed by the NAACP, claiming xAI is illegally operating gas turbines to power its data centers in S outhaven and Memphis. xAI on Monday asked the court to dismiss the case, arguing that the NAACP does not have legal standing to sue. The DOJ, Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves and Cameron Stanley, the chief digital and artificial intelligence officer at the Department of Defense, also asked the court to dismiss the case. “The state urges you to take immediate action to intervene and protect these vital state and national interests,” Reeves said in a letter to the court. Last summer, xAI began operating 18 mobile and temporary turbines in Southaven and has since upped the number to 57, according to recent court filings. Southaven residents say that nearly constant noise coming from xAI’s turbines is intolerable. In a separate class action lawsuit against xAI, residents detail how the noise has disrupted their daily routines, caused them to lose sleep and lowered their property values. In Mississippi, mobile generators do not need an air permit if they operate for less than a year.  The Southern Environmental Law Center, which is representing the NAACP, says that the turbines are polluting the air and should require a permit. They have asked the court to stop xAI from operating the generators until it gets air permits for them.  xAI is using the mobile turbines until it finishes constructing a permanent power plant, which will be early next year according to court documents. In March, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality approved air permits for xAI to build permanent gas turbines at the site.  Audience members listen as comments are made during a Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality public hearing on an xAI permit application at Northwest Mississippi Community College in Southaven on Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2026. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today Reeves wrote that xAI’s $20-billion investment in Mississippi data centers will create thousands of jobs and prevent electricity rates from going up for other customers. He said that if the state granted the NAACP’s request to shut down the turbines it would create an “immediate and substantial disruption to the state’s economy.” In January, when the investment was announced, Reeves said it was the largest economic development project in the state’s history. Both Reeves and Stanley said that stopping the turbines would pose a national security risk and threaten U.S. leadership in artificial intelligence.  Stanley said that xAI’s AI model, Grok Gov Mode, “provides critical support” for the U.S. military and was used in recent attacks against Iran.  “If xAI is hindered from continuing to improve and upgrade Grok, including the Grok Gov Model, (the military’s) ability to meet its national security mission and keep pace with adversaries will be impaired,” Stanley said in the statement.  The motions came just days after SpaceX, xAI’s parent company, went public last week with the largest initial public offering in history.  ...read more read less