People Living Near xAI’s Dirty Data Centers Are Furious About the SpaceX IPO
Key takeaways
- A public offering will allow Space X to raise even more money to fund its AI ambitions, including building more data centers, faster.
- “We’re the extracted and exploited colony of what is going to be one of the most highly valued entities in the world,” says Justin Pearson, who represents portions of Memphis in the Tennessee House of Representatives.
- xAI is selling $15 billion per year in compute at its Memphis campuses to Anthropic, another company planning a blockbuster IPO in the coming months.
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
PHOTO-ILLUSTRATION: WIRED STAFF; GETTY IMAGESComment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Space X, Elon Musk’s behemoth company that launches rockets and runs data centers, is set to go public Friday with a target valuation above $1.75 trillion. The move will make Musk, already the richest man in the world, vastly wealthier.
A public offering will allow Space X to raise even more money to fund its AI ambitions, including building more data centers, faster.
But even as Musk and other SpaceX investors see a huge windfall, the community hosting xAI data centers already in operation are demanding accountability from the company’s use of polluting gas turbines and a water treatment facility put on pause earlier this year.