xAI's Memphis Water Treatment Plant 'on an Indefinite Pause' - 512 Pixels

Part of xAI's deal with the city of Memphis included an $80 million greywater facility designed to reduce the amount of water the company needs for cooling its data centers. The Mid-South sits atop the Memphis Sand Aquifer that provides us with some of the very best water in the country. It is our best natural resource by far, and one that many people have worked hard to protect.

Ground was broken on the plant in October, but as of today, work has stopped. Samuel Hardiman at The Daily Memphian broke the news:

Work on xAI's planned, promised and under-construction water-recycling facility has been paused, the project's engineer told The Daily Memphian on Wednesday, April 8.

"We are on an indefinite pause while we review the best way to execute this project, the most efficient way to execute this project," Mark Carroll, Colossus Water Recycling engineer, said in an interview Wednesday.

Carroll said the company decided to pause construction a week ago and told project stakeholders about it Wedneday. A company spokesperson had previously said The Daily Memphian's reporting [that the project had been paused] was "false" but declined to say why.

Hardiman goes on:

"XAI has invested substantially in this, this project. I mean, you've driven by the site, you've seen that this was not blowing smoke up anyone's skirt," Carroll said. "We have been going at this project full bore. So this is not something where xAI promised something and didn't intend to carry through."

He went on to say that he doesn't actually know what the company's plans are for the site. Memphis Mayor Paul Young said that the city would "use every lever we have to make sure this project moves forward."