xAI offers to buy Mississippi homes if owners drop noise claims

Elon Musk’s xAI is buying homes next to its power plant in Southaven, Mississippi. The catch is that sellers must drop any claims in a noise lawsuit against the company. A realtor told one resident the target is 418 homes in the Colonial Hills neighbourhood. So far, 18 owners have agreed to sell.

Oliver Milman reported the figures for The Guardian, based on a recording of the conversation the paper heard. MZX Tech is the xAI subsidiary that runs the plant. It has bought five homes in the area since 9 October, according to county records cited by the Guardian. The company is now part of SpaceX and has been renamed SpaceXSI, but locals still call it xAI.

Sell, but drop the lawsuit

The offer arrived in an undated letter from MZX Tech, which Illan Ireland first published for the Mississippi Free Press in September.

“MZX denies all of the allegations against it. However, because MZX also requires property for its business purposes, MZX, through its real estate broker, is offering to purchase real estate in Southaven in exchange for, among other things, a release of all claims related to the lawsuit,” the letter says.

Anyone who signs also gives up the right to bring claims of their own over the plant. The letter calls the offer “fully voluntary” and points residents to a broker, Burch Realty Group. It does not say how much MZX will pay. Homes in the area sell for about $180,000 on average, the Guardian reported.

Jason Haley, Preston Herrington and Taylor Logsdon sued in June in the federal court for the Northern District of Mississippi. They say the plant’s noise and vibration have harmed their health and the value of their homes. They want to represent everyone who has lived near the plant since August 2025, more than 10,000 people, according to the Mississippi Free Press. The plaintiffs have since dropped SpaceX from the case, and xAI and MZX have moved to dismiss part of it, the letter says.

“It’s been so torturous I can’t sleep, I just leave the house or turn on some music until I fall asleep completely exhausted,” Haley told the Guardian.

69 turbines next door

The plant sits on a former Duke Energy site. It runs 69 temporary gas turbines that power xAI’s data centres in Southaven and nearby Memphis, Tennessee. In July, TNW reported that xAI was running unpermitted gas turbines at its sites. A House Democrat later asked Musk to answer for the pollution they cause.

xAI denies the noise claims. It has said it cares about being a good neighbour. It has varied the plant’s output and built sound-dampening walls. In July, it agreed with state regulators to replace the turbines with a permanent gas-fired plant by next summer.

Southaven’s mayor, Darren Musselwhite, backs the buyout. He said the city’s monitors have not recorded noise above the local limit of 70 decibels.

“The buyout has multiple purposes which are to provide homes for some employees and a goodwill gesture from a good corporate citizen,” Musselwhite told the Guardian.

More cases in court

The NAACP is also suing xAI over the turbines under the Clean Air Act. On 19 October, a federal judge in Mississippi, Debra Brown, refused a Justice Department bid to dismiss it, IBTimes reported.

Mississippi regulators could also fine the company up to $6.1m. It built three data centres before it had stormwater permits, DataCenterDynamics reported, citing a SpaceX filing. The company is discussing a settlement. Opposition to data centres has become an election issue in other states too.