Elon Musk lands in Memphis as DOJ moves to shield xAI pollution suit

Elon Musk flew from Brownsville, Texas, to Memphis on June 17, his Gulfstream G650ER (N628TS) touching down at 1:59 p.m. local time after a 96-minute hop from the SpaceX Starbase area. The flight lands the week the U.S. Department of Justice asked a federal court to throw out a Clean Air Act lawsuit the NAACP filed against xAI, now owned by SpaceX, over unpermitted methane-gas turbines powering its Colossus data centers near Memphis, per a CNBC report.

The DOJ argued June 15 that shutting off those turbines — which xAI acknowledges run 57 units without air permits, according to filings cited by Electrek — threatens national security by cutting power to AI models used by the Department of War. The NAACP, backed by the Southern Environmental Law Center and Earthjustice, seeks an injunction and daily penalties of roughly $124,000 per violation. Musk’s company claims the trailer-mounted turbines qualify as temporary mobile equipment, a classification the EPA closed off in January; the turbines kept running.

Musk’s travel patterns show he was in Los Angeles and Seattle earlier this week, with the Memphis stop inserted between Southest Asia departures and a return flight pattern that suggests he is spending significant time on xAI legal and operational matters. The visit comes as SpaceX, now trading publicly with a $2.8 trillion valuation, plans another $2.8 billion in gas turbine purchases over the next three years per its IPO filing.