The Pulse
xAI Offers Southaven Homes to Residents Facing Noise Lawsuit
xAI subsidiary MZX Tech is buying homes in Southaven, Mississippi, with sellers required to give up claims tied to a residents’ noise lawsuit. A realtor told one resident the company was targeting 418 homes, while DeSoto County records show
AI.info Team · Written with AI · fact-checked ·
xAI’s subsidiary is offering to buy homes in Southaven, Mississippi, while residents say noise from the company’s nearby power plant has disrupted their lives. The proposed sales come with a condition: owners must give up claims connected to a lawsuit over the noise. xAI denies the lawsuit’s allegations and has said it wants to be a good neighbor.
A buyout offer with a legal condition
MZX Tech, the xAI subsidiary that operates the Southaven site, has made offers through real-estate agents to homeowners in Colonial Hills. A letter shared with residents says sellers would sign a real-estate contract and, at closing, a separate release covering claims related to the power plant and the lawsuit. The Mississippi Free Press reported that the letter says a seller who signs the release cannot recover damages through the case or bring claims on their own behalf.
The scale of the plan remains unclear. A realtor told one resident that the target was 418 homes and that 18 owners had agreed to sell, according to a recording heard by The Guardian. xAI did not respond to questions about those figures or its plans for the neighborhood. DeSoto County records show MZX had bought five neighborhood homes since October 9.
The offers have drawn different responses from residents. Gavin Foust told The Guardian he would not accept one because of its requirement that he give up the right to sue. Elizabeth Rose, a piano teacher who lives about two miles from the site, said she feared the purchases could spread across the neighborhood. “And now I get the feeling they are trying to expand the buyout to the entire neighborhood,” she said.
Residents describe noise; xAI disputes the claims
Three Southaven residents filed a lawsuit in June alleging near-constant noise, vibration and other harms from the gas turbines powering nearby data centers. The complaint says the conditions interfere with residents’ use of their homes and seeks compensation. Those claims are allegations, not findings by a court; xAI denies them.
Jason Haley, one of the plaintiffs, told The Guardian the turbine noise is “like an airplane over your house.” He said it has kept him from sleeping and made him leave home or play music until he is exhausted. The Guardian reported that the plant began operating in August 2025 and houses 69 temporary gas turbines.
The company has said it varies the plant’s power output and built sound-dampening walls. Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite told The Guardian the city’s monitoring had not detected a violation of its 70-decibel noise limit. He described the purchases as serving several purposes, including housing some xAI employees and acting as “a goodwill gesture from a good corporate citizen.”
Buyouts leave renters with fewer options
The offer is aimed at property owners, leaving tenants to negotiate with landlords rather than with MZX. Mississippi Today reported that some renters feared displacement after owners agreed to sell; one tenant said her landlord offered to move her but did not cover moving costs. The outlet also reported that renters make up a substantial share of the area covered by the lawsuit.
That difference matters in a neighborhood where selling a home could end an owner’s connection to the dispute, while tenants may face a move without receiving a buyout themselves. Mississippi Today quoted the attorney for the residents, Robert Wiygul, urging people to assess whether an offer would compensate them for what they had lost. The legal release described in the letter could also close off claims beyond participation in the existing case.
The power plant remains the point of dispute
The dispute sits alongside xAI’s expansion of data-center operations around Memphis and Southaven. The Guardian reported that the company agreed with Mississippi regulators in July to convert the Southaven plant to a permanent gas-fired facility by next summer, a change expected to reduce noise from the temporary turbines. The company’s timetable does not resolve the residents’ current lawsuit or the question of what happens to homeowners who decline an offer.
For now, the two sides describe the conflict differently: residents say the turbines have made their homes difficult to live in, while xAI rejects the allegations and is seeking property for its business. The county records establish five purchases since October 9; the broader 418-home target remains an account relayed by a realtor, not a plan confirmed by the company.