SpaceXAI Commits to Restarting Memphis Wastewater Treatment Plant by Q1 2027
June 23, 2026
SpaceXAI Commits to Restarting Memphis Wastewater Treatment Plant by Q1 2027
SpaceXAI, the artificial intelligence and infrastructure company owned by Elon Musk, has committed to resuming construction of an $80 million wastewater treatment facility in Memphis by the first quarter of 2027. The announcement comes nearly 12 months after work on the project stalled, raising concerns among city officials and environmental advocates about the impact of the company’s rapidly expanding data center operations in the area.
The facility, which SpaceXAI claims will be the largest of its kind in the world, was first announced in February 2025 and construction began in September 2025 on land acquired from the city of Memphis. However, progress halted in April 2026 when SpaceXAI redirected staff to other projects ahead of the highly anticipated SpaceX IPO, according to local reports. At the time, Musk said the company needed to focus on completing Colossus 2, its second Memphis data center, and ensuring it was extremely stable before building the water recycling plant.
Under the revived timeline, the treatment plant will be capable of recycling 49.2 million liters (13 million gallons) of wastewater each day. SpaceXAI has pledged to supply excess treated water to other businesses in the area, reducing strain on the Memphis Sand Aquifer, the primary water source for the city. “The facility is critical infrastructure that will offset water usage from both SpaceXAI and TVA,” the City of Memphis said in a statement, referring to the Tennessee Valley Authority, the regional power provider.
SpaceXAI currently operates two data centers in Memphis, with a third under construction. These facilities house the company’s Colossus supercomputer and provide computing capacity to Google, AI lab Anthropic, AI coding firm Cursor—which SpaceXAI is in the process of acquiring—and Reflection. The environmental footprint of these operations has drawn criticism. Last week, the U.S. Justice Department asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit brought by the NAACP, which alleges that SpaceXAI’s data centers are damaging local air quality by illegally running dozens of portable natural gas turbines.
City officials, including Memphis Mayor Paul Young and Doug McGowen, president of utility company Memphis Light, Gas and Water, met with SpaceXAI’s Michael Nicoll on Monday to secure the commitment. “Mayor Young will continue the persistent engagement that led to this commitment until the facility is complete,” the city’s statement added. The restart of the wastewater plant is seen as a key step in addressing both the water and energy demands of one of the largest AI infrastructure clusters in the United States.
Source: datacenterdynamics
