Real estate agents are going door to door in Southaven, Mississippi, telling homeowners they can sell to xAI if they agree not to join a lawsuit over noise from a nearby power plant. One realtor has said the target is 418 homes, and another said 18 homeowners have already agreed to sell.
The pitch has landed squarely in Colonial Hills, on the western flank of Southaven, where Elizabeth Rose said the turbines are loud enough to wake her at 2am and 3am. She said the noise sounds like an airplane engine, but it never stops, and she sometimes has to get away from it because it leaves her angry.
The buyout effort matters now because it comes as xAI has been building out its footprint in the Memphis and Southaven area since July 2024, with three datacenters now operating there: Colossus I, Colossus II and Macrohardrr. The realtor and the local mayor said the homes are meant to house xAI staff, making the neighborhood part of the company’s wider expansion rather than just a cluster of nearby complaints.
That explanation has not eased the friction on the ground. Residents say the offer is tied to pressure not to join the noise case, while the company has denied the claims in the lawsuit. Rose said, “All of a sudden there was a plant there,” and added that she now feels the buyout is being widened to the whole neighborhood, turning it into “Elonville.”
The key unanswered question is how far the effort will go. The target of 418 homes is far larger than the 18 sales already mentioned, and it is not clear whether xAI will actually acquire most of Colonial Hills or whether the latest offers will stall in the face of the lawsuit and the neighborhood’s noise complaints.
