MLGW leaders address concerns surrounding xAI supercomputer

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — MLGW leaders stood before community members to answer questions about Elon Musk’s new xAI supercomputer facility in South Memphis on Saturday.

For over two hours, MLGW President and CEO Doug McGowan met with Memphians at the Southwest Tennessee Community College’s Whitehaven Campus to address their concerns about the upcoming supercomputer.

“We had too many times of blackouts and boil-your-water kind of things last year,” resident Danye Echtinaw said.

McGowan said the facility could use up to 150 megawatts of power at peak times.

He added that since MLGW is a public utility company, by law, he cannot discriminate who they give power to. Their analysis is based on whether they can reasonably provide utilities to a facility.

“In this case, we already had a manufacturing plant that already had access to water and gas. There was absolutely no question,” McGowan said. “It had access to a substation that provided 8 megawatts of power and could easily provide 50 megawatts of power.”

While energy usage is a major concern, environmental groups say they want to hear from the other parties involved in the project, specifically when it comes to the environmental impact.

“There’s still a lot of details to work out. We’ve seen no permits pulled. We’ve seen no designs of this facility.  We don’t know if TVA’s even committed to using it. So, there’s still a whole lot of what-ifs going on,” said Sarah Houston, the Executive Director of Protect Our Aquifer.

“It’s really unfair that MLGW will fill in all these questions, but xAI was not present today. The health department was not present today, the chamber was not present today. We need everybody that has a stake in this, not just community and not just MLGW, to be here and answer these questions,” said LaTricea Adams, the President and CEO of Young Gifted and Green.

McGowan said he’s focused on ensuring the project does not impact the reliability and availability of energy and water usage for existing customers.

“It is our obligation to make sure that we protect our existing customers and that’s exactly what we’re going to do,” McGowan said.

The full meeting can be watched here .

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