DOJ defends – The Justice Department is asking a court to dismiss a lawsuit over noisy, allegedly unpermitted turbines outside xAI’s Southaven, Mississippi data center—arguing stopping them would harm national security. The dispute is unfolding as the Trump administration h
Outside Elon Musk’s xAI data center in Southaven, Mississippi, dozens of unpermitted gas turbines have been running around the clock—at least that’s what a lawsuit says, as nitrogen oxides fill the air.
Residents describe the constant noise as something they can’t escape: a high-pitched squeal mixed with a low-frequency rumble. They say it disrupts their daily routines, costs them sleep, and has driven down the value of their homes.
Now, the Department of Justice is stepping in with a simple request: don’t stop the turbines.
In a filing tied to the Mississippi case. federal lawyers argued the turbines are too important to national security to be shut down. according to the lawsuit. The Department’s position is backed by state leadership as well. Republican Gov. Tate Reeves urged the court to intervene to protect what he called vital state and national interests. writing. “The state urges you to take immediate action to intervene and protect these vital state and national interests.”.
The company’s turbine footprint has grown quickly. The NAACP, which launched the lawsuit, says xAI is operating illegally. The complaint says xAI began operating 18 mobile and temporary turbines in Southaven, then increased the number to nearly 60.
To the residents living nearby, the dispute is less about legal theory and more about the way the machines sound and the way they change life at home. One resident told the Tennessee Lookout that, “It seems to me that we are being very thoroughly thrown under the bus.”
Behind the immediate fight over noise and air pollution is a broader pattern of government involvement in AI and defense procurement. Over the last few months, the Trump administration has repeatedly stepped into individual artificial intelligence companies’ business.
In late February, Anthropic was in the middle of negotiations with the Pentagon on a deal worth up to $200 million. Those talks broke down after Anthropic asked the government for redlines stating that its software wouldn’t be used for autonomous weapons and spying on Americans. The Pentagon wouldn’t accept those terms. After the collapse, Trump posted on Truth Social telling all federal agencies to immediately stop using Anthropic’s chatbot. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth followed with a warning that labeled Anthropic a supply chain risk—effectively blacklisting the company from doing business with any Pentagon-connected entity.
But the story didn’t end with a headline order. Hours after those moves. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said his company had reached a deal with the Department of Defense to deploy its AI models on classified government networks. potentially replacing Anthropic’s models. Altman also said he secured “red lines” with the Pentagon that Anthropic had previously sought. The Pentagon did respond to a request for comment from NPR.
Still, multiple reports said the government actually never stopped using Anthropic’s software. Claude remained in use by more than 100,000 users on top-secret government networks after Trump’s order, and it was reportedly used for strikes on Iran.
A separate deal with Nvidia shows how quickly policy and enforcement questions can turn into constitutional fights. In August 2025. Trump agreed to grant Nvidia export licenses for its H20 chips to China on the condition that Nvidia pay 15% of its revenue to the U.S. government. The deal expanded in a way that allowed Nvidia to sell its more advanced H200 chips at a 25% cut. with similar arrangements for Intel and AMD.
Legal scholars at Lawfare argued the export-fee approach could be unconstitutional because only Congress can levy an export fee—meaning companies or states in the supply chain could sue.
Who pays the price depends on which dispute you’re standing next to. In Southaven, residents say they are absorbing the daily consequences while lawyers argue over whether the turbines must keep running. In Washington, the question is whether the government can impose these kinds of terms and restrictions in the first place.
The two worlds are connected by one recurring idea: when national security is invoked, the system moves fast—often before broader legal questions are fully resolved.
That urgency is one reason the Nvidia arrangement is drawing comparisons to another legal setback for the Trump administration. In February. the Supreme Court ruled that a separate set of Trump administration tariffs exceeded the administration’s authority. leaving about $160 billion in collected revenue subject to disputed refund claims.
Even as the government argued in Mississippi that action can’t wait. not every AI company appears to have benefited from interventions. Weeks before the Pentagon designated Anthropic a security risk. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the Pentagon would adopt xAI’s Grok. criticizing “woke AI. ” a comment Semafor reported was aimed at Anthropic. White House AI adviser David Sacks and other officials had raised similar accusations against the company for months.
And while xAI’s Grok is being brought into Pentagon use. Microsoft—OpenAI’s largest financial backer and cloud-computing partner—remains in the government’s crosshairs. Microsoft is under a federal antitrust investigation examining whether it illegally bundles AI tools with its Azure platform to restrict competitors. The Federal Trade Commission opened the investigation in the final days of the Biden administration. Trump’s FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson has continued it, issuing new investigative demands to Microsoft’s competitors in February.
For the people in Southaven, the next step is straightforward: whether the federal government’s request will persuade the court to dismiss the NAACP’s challenge to the turbines. For the broader AI and defense policy, the next step is still a moving target.
The future in these cases isn’t neatly resolved. The Nvidia revenue-sharing arrangement still faces a constitutional challenge. Anthropic’s fight with the Pentagon is also still active after a federal judge ruled in March that its blacklisting was likely unlawful retaliation; the government is appealing that decision.
And just as legal questions remain open. the companies at the center of them are drawing new attention from capital markets. Six days before the DOJ’s Mississippi filing. SpaceX—described as formally acquiring xAI as a subsidiary in February—raised $75 billion on June 11 at a $1.75 trillion valuation in what it called the largest IPO in history. It’s the first of three AI-related IPOs expected this year. with OpenAI and Anthropic having filed paperwork with the SEC to go public.
For residents near xAI’s turbines. though. the stakes are immediate and physical: the air they breathe. the hours they lose sleep. and the quiet confidence they once had that rules about permits and pollution would protect their neighborhoods. The federal government is asking the court to let the turbines keep running—at least for now—because shutting them down. it says. would collide with national security.
xAI turbines Southaven DOJ national security NAACP lawsuit nitrogen oxides noisy turbines Tate Reeves Anthropic Pentagon redlines OpenAI classified networks Nvidia export licenses revenue sharing antitrust Microsoft FTC