Proposed xAI water plant is the ‘right thing to do’
Memphis Light, Gas and Water President and CEO Doug McGowen speaks at the Arlington Chamber of Commerce luncheon March 13, 2024. (Greg Campbell/Special to The Daily Memphian)
Memphis Light, Gas and Water CEO Doug McGowen commented this week on xAI’s stalled water-recycling plant in Southwest Memphis, saying the project would benefit the community and the environment.
Plans for the plant were interrupted this past week when the Memphis City Council voted to table selling 13 acres of city-owned land to xAI. The acreage would house a roughly $80 million plant the Elon Musk-tied artificial intelligence startup would build and pay for in Southwest Memphis.
The council tabled the vote to Feb. 18 after the company appeared before the body for the first time since it arrived in Memphis almost a year ago. Several council members expressed distrust of Musk and the company, expressing angst after xAI has spent billions in Memphis without needing a single City Council approval.
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Samuel Hardiman
Samuel Hardiman is an enterprise and investigative reporter who focuses on local government and politics. He began his journalism career at the Tulsa World in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he covered business and, later, K-12 education. Hardiman came to Memphis in 2018 to join the Memphis Business Journal, covering government and economic development. He then served as the Memphis Commercial Appeal’s city hall reporter and later joined The Daily Memphian in 2023. His current work focuses on Elon Musk’s xAI, regional energy needs and how Memphis and Shelby County government spend taxpayer dollars.
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