Residents of Southaven, Mississippi, a city close to the state’s border with Tennessee, are sounding off to share their displeasure with billionaire Elon Musk’s latest venture, according to an NBC News report.

Musk, who seems to have his hand in every aspect of technology these days, purchased an abandoned power plant in the city in 2025 for the use of his xAI company. The power plant currently has 27 turbines, a number which Musk hopes to increase. The turbines are so loud that people who live in Southaven are dealing with insomnia, but the company doesn’t seem to care.

Residents expressed their concerns in a recent regulatory hearing, but it sounds like they were mostly ignored.

xAI applied for a permit to put in a total of 41 permanent turbines at the power plant “to generate electricity for AI data centers,” per NBC. On February 17, the city held a regulatory hearing at which residents could share their feelings. Let’s just say they weren’t very positive.

Nathan Reed, who has lived in Southaven for all of his life, stated at the hearing, “This was not a thoughtful, phased development. It was an industrial surge imposed on our residential community.” 76-year-old Eddie Gossett explained he always assumed he would live out the rest of his life in his Southaven home, but said at this point, “I couldn’t give my house away with all this noise.”

In response to the serious concerns about the noise the plant created, xAI built a $7 million sound wall, which has done next to nothing. Taylor Logsdon said that she and other residents refer to it as the “Temu sound wall,” a testament to its lack of quality.

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On top of the noise, residents have other worries, but officials haven’t been swayed.

Logsdon is actually worried that the plant isn’t just a nuisance because of its noise, but is also polluting the air. Two of her children have begun experiencing respiratory problems since xAI moved in. The Environmental Defense Fund confirmed that “power plants emit a wide array of harmful pollutants,” including the kind that would be dangerous to people’s health.

Others were concerned about one of the most common topics brought up around AI. Charlene Wilson said, “What’s the point in all of this? A lot of people are going to be out of work.” Indeed, CNBC reported that entry-level job postings have decreased by 35% in the U.S. over just three years. Dario Amodei, the CEO of Anthropic, one of the companies at the cutting edge of AI, estimated that the technology would eliminate 50% of entry-level jobs.

The mayor of Southaven, Darren Musselwhite, is thoroughly unconcerned, though. In his words, “Southaven is now under attack by all who choose to oppose Elon Musk because of his high-profile political stances.” He pointed to the astronomical amount of money the power plant is projected to bring to the area, as well as quite a few new jobs, as proof that they would be crazy to turn Musk and xAI away.

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As for what’s to come, the people of Southaven plan to keep fighting.

It’s not clear they’ll get very far, though. Gossett actually issued a direct invitation to Musk, saying, “You need to come over and stay at my house for a week.” Of course, the chances of that actually happening are nonexistent.

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It may seem like the true danger of the power plant lies in its environmental impacts, but being unable to sleep is no minor thing. Harvard Health Publishing noted that sleep deprivation “can damage nearly every system in your body,” and cause problems as wide-ranging as diabetes, heart disease, dementia, and weight gain.

Despite Musselwhite’s claims, politics is not the issue for these people. Gossett actually said he thought Musk’s work in DOGE was “a service.” It doesn’t matter what side of the aisle Musk stands on. It just matters that his company is seriously affecting their health in some of the worst ways.

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Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer with a bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism who covers news, psychology, lifestyle, and human interest topics.