xAI May Turn to North Mississippi for Powering Second Memphis Site →

Once again, Samuel Hardiman for The Daily Memphian, writing about xAI’s power needs:

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, appears to be exploring how to generate electricity for its second data center in Memphis. And those plans could cross the Tennessee-Mississippi border.

The plans could involve a former natural gas plant in Southaven, Mississippi, just over a mile from xAI’s second data center, which is being built at 5420 Tulane Road in Whitehaven.

xAI and Solaris Energy Infrastructure (the company who seems to have sourced the turbines spinning at xAI’s first Memphis site) have a new partnership named Stateline Power Solutions.

Hardiman quotes — but doesn’t link to¹ — a Securities and Exchange Commission filing in which the new company says it is looking to supply up to 900 megawatts of power to the Tulane project.

In addition to the amount of power the new venture intends to make, the filing explains how that power will be generated:

We estimate that the net proceeds to us from this offering will be approximately $129.0 million (or approximately $148.4 million if the underwriters fully exercise their option to purchase additional notes), after deducting the underwriting discounts and commissions and our estimated offering expenses. We expect to use the net proceeds to purchase from Solaris LLC, our operating subsidiary, a subordinated convertible note to be issued by Solaris LLC with substantially similar economic terms as the notes, and Solaris LLC expects to use such net proceeds to fund growth capital for additional power generation equipment, including new natural gas turbines and complementary “balance of plant” electrical equipment, to support customer activity.

(Emphasis mine.)

Hardiman goes on:

Recently, a reporter observed a handful of natural gas turbines along Tulane Road in Southaven, tucked behind some trees in the parking lot of a self-storage facility. The machines could not be heard running, and no plume of fumes was visible.

And:

The same brand of turbines has been used as a temporary power source at xAI’s first Memphis data center, 3231 Paul R. Lowry Road. The turbines have been used there alongside Tesla Megapacks, massive batteries that store energy.

Last week, The Daily Memphian observed Megapacks being trucked into 5420 Tulane Road.

What a surprise.