{"id":726236,"date":"2026-06-10T00:24:13","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T00:24:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/726236\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T00:24:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T00:24:13","slug":"elon-musks-xai-hit-with-class-action-over-data-centre-power-plants-causing-inescapable-noise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/726236\/","title":{"rendered":"Elon Musk’s xAI hit with class action over data centre power plants causing ‘inescapable’ noise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Residents in the US state of Mississippi are suing Elon Musk’s xAI and SpaceX, saying a power plant fuelling nearby data centres is blasting “omnipresent and inescapable” noise, eroding their health and home values.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, made public in a federal court on Tuesday, local time, alleges Mr Musk’s companies negligently failed to curb the disturbance and created a public nuisance through excessive and offensive noise.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Three residents filed the class action case on behalf of an estimated 10,000 people.<\/p>\n

“The artificial intelligence (AI) boom is wreaking havoc on communities across the United States” by subjecting thousands of residents to near-constant noise and vibrations, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n

The plaintiffs are seeking damages for alleged emotional distress, reduced property values and other harms, as well as an unspecified amount in profits.<\/p>\n

\"Metal<\/p>\n

Colossus 1 is xAI’s AI training supercomputer. (Reuters: Karen Pulfer Focht)<\/p>\n

xAI and SpaceX did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.<\/p>\n

xAI subsidiary MZX Tech was also named as a defendant. Mr Musk is not a defendant.<\/p>\n

A lawyer for the plaintiffs, Robert Wiygul, said: “Our homes are supposed to be a sanctuary for us against the world.”<\/p>\n

“When they are invaded by noise 24 hours a day, it takes that fundamental peace of a good and decent life away from us,” he said.<\/p>\n

xAI invested more than $US20 billion ($20.4 billion) to build the plant at Southaven with the backing of Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Gas-fired turbines at Southaven powered data centres in and around Southaven, the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n

In April, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) also sued xAI over the plant and centres, accusing the company of violating US environmental rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The US Justice Department signalled in a court filing last month it might intervene in the NAACP case, saying the dispute raised legal and policy questions about the government’s role in AI infrastructure.<\/p>\n

Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Residents in the US state of Mississippi are suing Elon Musk’s xAI and SpaceX, saying a power plant…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":726237,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[351615,64,63,99,36423,10832,1772,3120,2462,46682,5437,973,3123],"class_list":["post-726236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-ai-centres","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-class-action","tag-data-centers","tag-data-centres","tag-elon-musk","tag-lawsuit","tag-mississippi","tag-spacex","tag-tennessee","tag-xai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=726236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/726236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/726237"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=726236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=726236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=726236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}