It was 4 a.m. on a Sunday and 46-year-old Jason Haley was as soon as once more awake.
The suburban silence that Haley had grown used to in his 20 years as a resident of Southaven, Mississippi, had, for the previous few months, been changed by a continuing whirring, like an airplane hovering over his residence, he mentioned.
The noise protecting Haley awake was coming from a plant powering Elon Musk’s xAI knowledge facilities within the space, in accordance with a lawsuit filed in June towards the corporate and its subsidiary, MZX Tech. Haley and two different Southaven residents, who dwell inside a mile of the plant, allege within the go well with that “near-constant” noise and vibrations are inflicting destructive bodily and psychological well being results.
The submitting comes amid rising resistance towards knowledge middle improvement, with the majority of People opposing native development of an information middle, in accordance with a Gallup ballot printed earlier this yr.
Related disputes are taking part in out throughout the nation, like in Mount Nice, Wisconsin, the place a lawsuit this month filed by residents alleges an information middle emits “unreasonable and extreme noise” onto residents’ properties and in Lowell, Massachusetts, the place noise from an information middle’s cooling middle “disrupts neighbors’ sleep,” in accordance with an April go well with.
There are greater than 4,000 knowledge facilities within the U.S., in accordance with a current United Nations report. To energy the information facilities, builders are constructing their very own crops, typically with little warning to residents like Haley.
Haley reached out to Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite concerning the noise in emails he shared with CBS Information. In a single final November, he urged Musselwhite to drive by the neighborhood “and take a hearken to the fixed excessive pitch noises.”
“I’m conscious of the noise and dealing on an answer with xAI officers,” Musselwhite had responded to Haley an hour later. “It’s a downside,” he mentioned in one other e mail later within the day.
However quickly, one other sleepless evening rolled round and Haley was emailing the mayor once more.
“Anybody else I can attain out to?” Haley wrote to Musselwhite. “It is virtually 4 am and I can hear it from my mattress. The excessive pitch and roaring mixed is full power presently. My ears are ringing. I am unable to dwell on this. How was this ever authorised?”
“I do not care that that is Elon’s venture”
Simply north of Southaven, which sits on the Mississippi-Tennessee border, xAI’s knowledge middle Colossus went on-line in Memphis in September 2024. The corporate dubbed it “the world’s largest AI supercomputer.”
By late July 2025, Musk was saying that one other knowledge middle, Colossus 2, was set to start operation within the space inside weeks.
Days later, an announcement popped into the Fb feeds of Southaven residents: An power facility that had been dormant for many years might be revived to help xAI’s increasing knowledge middle operations within the space, Musselwhite mentioned.
The submit was met by a flood of feedback, with some lauding the event and others expressing concern concerning the plant’s influence on the surroundings and pressure on native sources.
In the meantime, Haley began listening to sounds.
“My first thought was someone’s acquired a leaf blower going on a regular basis,” he mentioned.
By December, the noise had grow to be a fixture. He began getting complications, stopped getting sleep and slipped into emotions of hopelessness and despair. The noise was inescapable, he mentioned, and regardless of his greatest efforts to drown it out (sleeping with earplugs, getting a field fan for white noise), it continued to drone on.
So Haley started talking up — at metropolis authorities conferences, on Fb and thru TikTok, the place he posts movies of himself measuring the noise with a sound meter. He later turned concerned in a grassroots coalition referred to as Secure and Sound, drawing consciousness to issues surrounding xAI’s undertakings within the area.
The “activist” label is one he is reluctantly accepted.
“I’ve by no means been into any form of activism, by no means actually stored up with politics an entire lot,” he mentioned. “I am only a man that has an issue with this noise, and began talking out and attempting to boost consciousness.”
When he emailed Musselwhite concerning the noise once more in December, his message got here with a disclosure: “I’m not a republican or democrat, I do not care that that is Elon’s venture. I did not know whose it was after I began complaining concerning the noise that began in August.”
Musselwhite responded a couple of days later.
“As I discussed to you within the public assembly, you appear to be an affordable individual,” he mentioned. “I offers you some unsolicited recommendation from an older man, watch out with whom you affiliate so you do not injury your credibility.”
By January, xAI was increasing its footprint with a 3rd knowledge middle in Southaven, MACROHARDDR. As residents like Haley continued pushing again on-line and in metropolis conferences, Musselwhite had a brand new message.
Southaven, he mentioned in a Fb submit, was “below assault by all who select to oppose Elon Musk due to his high-profile political stances.” He warned residents to “watch out for the smokescreen of radical politics.”
In his emails to Haley, Musselwhite continued to acknowledge the noise as an issue.
“The noise situation is certainly one of my highest priorities and I’ve been in detailed discussions with xAI and lots of impartial professionals to resolve this,” he wrote in March.
However in the identical e mail, he supplied Haley extra recommendation: “I do know they need homes for workers, so you could need to take into account promoting your own home.”
CBS Information made a number of makes an attempt to talk with Musselwhite and didn’t obtain a reply.
Migraines, ringing ears and sleepless nights
Shifting is not Haley’s desire, however he mentioned he’s within the monetary place to take action if he chooses.
That is not the case for everybody.
A bit over a decade in the past, 31-year-old Taylor Logsdon purchased a house for her rising household in Southaven and started constructing her life round it.
“We beloved it right here,” she mentioned. “It was peaceable, it was quiet, did not have to fret about nothing.”
However that was earlier than the noise, so loud, she mentioned, that it typically shakes her residence. Logsdon, who can also be concerned within the Secure and Sound coalition and is suing xAI with Haley and one different Southaven resident, mentioned she has skilled migraines and nervousness on account of the noise.
She mentioned she has persistent ringing in her ears and so do her kids. A full evening of sleep has grow to be uncommon for the household.
“I might transfer tomorrow if I might,” she mentioned, including that she wants to economize earlier than she will afford to maneuver.
Her kids, all below the age of 13, are having bother staying awake in school.
“One in every of them is further indignant on a regular basis — by no means, by no means has been that method, however he is simply irritable like on a regular basis,” she mentioned. “I really feel like I am snappier too.”
xAI spent thousands and thousands of {dollars} attempting to mitigate the sound with a sound wall, a berm and evergreen timber, Musselwhite mentioned in a February Fb submit.
“It nonetheless hasn’t helped. It hasn’t even put a dent in it,” Logsdon mentioned.
Folks dwelling in areas the place there may be “fixed buzzing or buzzing” report complications, stress and sleep disturbance, mentioned Dr. Samoon Ahmad, a scientific professor of psychiatry at New York College.
A 2023 examine discovered that environmental noise publicity can result in hostile associations for heart problems and mortality, diabetes, listening to impairment, neurological problems and hostile reproductive outcomes.
“Folks consider annoyance as an summary time period,” Ahmad mentioned. “It is not an summary time period as a result of it has actual physiological ramifications.”
The World Well being Group recommends lower than 40 decibels of annual common nighttime noise exterior of bedrooms to stop hostile well being results. Haley has recorded noise ranges over 60 decibels as late as 10:15 p.m. from his Southaven yard.
Musk’s Memphis
Even earlier than Logsdon and Haley determined to take motion towards xAI, Musk’s rising presence within the Memphis space garnered consideration from advocacy teams over well being and environmental issues.
The Nationwide Affiliation for the Development of Coloured Folks filed a lawsuit in April towards xAI claiming the Southaven plant emits “vital” quantities of dangerous pollution from its 27 gasoline generators, which has since elevated to 59, in accordance with a courtroom submitting reviewed by CBS Information. The NAACP has additionally filed an attraction to problem the Mississippi Division of Environmental High quality’s determination to situation an air allow permitting the Southaven plant to function 41 everlasting methane gasoline generators. An impartial examine discovered their operation would enhance air air pollution in an space already grappling with a disproportionate variety of asthma-related emergency room visits.
CBS Information has reached out to xAI for remark.
Musk’s funding within the newest Southaven knowledge middle brings his firm’s contribution to the world to $20 billion, in accordance with the workplace of Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves. The governor referred to as it “the most important financial improvement venture in Mississippi’s historical past.”
Musk’s monetary footprint has additionally prolonged past the information facilities — MZX Tech donated over $1.3 million to the Southaven Police Division in February, in accordance with the donation settlement obtained by CBS Information, and has supplied half-priced Starlink for these within the Memphis area.
However Logsdon says the associated fee to her and her household’s well being has her questioning why it appears like her metropolis is keen to “harm the few to get the advantages.”
“We weren’t a failure city earlier than,” Logsdon mentioned. “It is not like our economics have been horrible right here.”
Southaven had a median family revenue of over $70,000 in 2024, in accordance with the U.S. Census Bureau — $20,000 greater than the state common.
Logsdon, at the moment a stay-at-home mother, might be looking for work this fall so she and her husband can begin saving as much as transfer away from the plant. For now, her objective is a full evening’s sleep.
“I hope that my household can return to having our regular,” she mentioned. “Having the ability to sleep at evening, having the ability to take pleasure in my yard, having the ability to go swimming.”
