A federal judge has denied xAI's motion to dismiss the NAACP's Clean Air Act lawsuit over the gas turbines powering its Colossus data centers outside Memphis. Judge Debra M. Brown's ruling, issued October 30 and reported October 31, lets every claim proceed; a similar Justice Department motion was denied earlier in October.

The suit, brought by the Southern Environmental Law Center and Earthjustice on behalf of the NAACP and its Mississippi conference and filed in April, alleges xAI installed and operated at least 35 combustion turbines and other pollution sources at the Colossus site without the required preconstruction or operating air permits. Other coverage of the Southaven plant that powers Colossus 2 puts 27 turbines installed between August and December 2025; the exact current count is disputed, and the allegations themselves have not been decided.

xAI argued the turbines were exempt as mobile sources and that Clean Air Act citizen suits are unconstitutional. Brown rejected all three lines: the plaintiffs have statutory standing, the turbines are not mobile sources under Mississippi's State Implementation Plan, and the citizen-suit provision violates neither Article II nor the private nondelegation doctrine. The case now moves into discovery over operating records and emissions data.