Here's your Forbes Daily Briefing for Tuesday, March 18th.

Today on Forbes, Elon Musk installs quick and dirty turbines to power XAI's Memphis

data centers.

When Memphis, Tennessee's grid couldn't provide all the electricity needed to power

XAI's new Colossus data center, the Elon Musk-led

artificial intelligence company turned to a quick and dirty solution, mobile natural gas turbines.

These power plants on wheels are usually a last resort during emergencies, not a permanent solution.

For example, they were crucial in restoring power in Puerto Rico after

Hurricane Maria left the island in ruins. But data centers around the country have started to use them

as a stopgap solution. There are at least four at the XAI site, possibly more, churning out not only

electricity, but pollutants like nitrous oxide and formaldehyde.

But shortly after the data center became operational, it became apparent to local journalists,

along with environmental activists, that no public agency had actually authorized the use of

mobile gas turbines that are powering it. Patrick Anderson, a lawyer with the Southern Environmental Law Center, wrote the Shelby County

Health Department in August 24, quote, to verify that XAI is operating these turbines without

the required air permit and bring an appropriate enforcement action for failing to obtain a permit.

XAI did not respond to a request from Forbes for comment.

It wasn't until January 2025 that XAI's sister company, CTC Property LLC,

finally submitted a formal permit application to the Shelby County Department of Health

to not only backdate approval of the four mobile

gas turbines already in operation, but to add 11 more. That would give the site 150 megawatts

of power, on top of the 150 megawatts that the local grid is already providing it. All told,

...