Elon Musk's xAI company was hit with an environmental lawsuit on 18th June 2025, as the Nevada Clean Air Alliance and Sierra Club environmental groups initiated legal proceedings against the company for operating over 400 MW of gas turbines at its data centre in Clark County, Nevada, without obtaining the necessary air quality permits. According to the filing, xAI has installed approximately 300 generators of 1.5 MW each, and the environmentalists claim these turbines produce significant nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide, and other pollutant emissions that are harmful to the health of local communities.
The lawsuit filed in Nevada's Clark County District Court alleges that xAI's turbine generators could emit up to 712 tons of nitrogen oxides and 321 tons of carbon monoxide annually, substantially exceeding the 90-ton threshold that requires permitting by the Clark County Department of Air Quality. Patrick Donnelly, Director of the Nevada Center for the Sierra Club, stated that xAI is deliberately attempting to circumvent environmental regulations, and the company likely chose Nevada for its data centre location because neighbouring California has stricter environmental requirements. The environmental groups are now asking the court to order xAI to cease operations until it obtains the proper permits.
Following the lawsuit filing, xAI stated that it is working with Clark County authorities to expedite the permitting process and denied intentionally bypassing environmental regulations. According to plans submitted by the company in March 2025, the currently gas-powered generators would eventually be replaced with solar power and battery storage systems, which would reduce carbon emissions by 60% by 2026 and 80% by 2027. This lawsuit could present a significant obstacle for xAI, which is currently developing its Grok AI model, as the data centre is crucial to the company's development plans, particularly as a challenger to Google's Gemini and OpenAI's GPT models.
Sources:
Tim De Chant
Maria Merano
Ian Lyall
