Elon Musk's xAI has found a new use for old Boeing 747 parts: keeping its artificial intelligence supercomputers running. The company has installed eight converted jet-engine power units at its plant in Southaven, Mississippi, to supply the Colossus 2 data center complex near Memphis, Tennessee.

The New York Times reported the deployment on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, following an investigation that drew on satellite imagery. The project reflects a broader pattern in which AI companies are building their own electricity supply as grid connections face delays. Large AI training clusters draw steady, highly concentrated loads, which has made securing power a core part of site planning — operators increasingly locate and provision generation alongside their hardware rather than waiting on utilities.

From Runway to Server Farm

The units began their service life as General Electric CF6-80C2 engines, the workhorses that powered Boeing 747 aircraft. ProEnergy, a company that specializes in repurposing aircraft turbines, rebuilt them to run on natural gas rather than jet fuel. This kind of second life is a known practice in the power industry: because aeroderivative turbines are mass-produced to aviation standards, they can typically be refurbished and deployed on shorter timelines than conventional power plants, which is what makes them useful as bridging capacity.

Each unit produces approximately 50 megawatts. At that rating, the eight units combined add up to roughly 400 megawatts of generating capacity — on the order of a mid-sized power station, sited directly beside a data center rather than on the open grid.

The reporting's deep research identifies xAI as operating in connection with the site under the name SpaceXAI. Mississippi regulators issued the permits covering the jet-engine units on March 11, 2026.

Emissions Allowances Draw Opposition

The permits come with a notable allowance: the converted engines may emit double the carbon monoxide permitted for the other turbines at the site, along with 25% more volatile organic compounds.

That provision has not gone unnoticed. The NAACP and the Southern Environmental Law Center have filed appeals challenging the permits.

The legal fight is not new for xAI in the area. The NAACP already has a Clean Air Act lawsuit pending over the temporary turbines the company previously ran at the same location. On October 30, 2026, a federal judge rejected xAI's motion to dismiss that case, allowing the litigation to move forward. Taken together, the appeals and the lawsuit will shape the regulatory terms under which xAI's onsite generation operates, a question that now spans both the older mobile turbines and the converted jet engines.

A Temporary Fix on the Way to Something Bigger

The jet-engine units are part of a broader shift in how xAI powers its Memphis operations. The company has relied on dozens of temporary mobile turbines and plans to phase them out.

In their place, xAI is preparing to build a permanent natural gas plant with a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts, running on 41 turbines — a scale in the range of large utility-grade gas facilities, built here for a single corporate computing operation. If the eight converted engines deliver close to their rated output, they would represent about a third of that planned permanent capacity.

Colossus 2 sits at the center of xAI's push to scale its AI infrastructure in Memphis as quickly as possible, and how quickly that buildout proceeds now depends on the power and permitting questions working their way through Mississippi's regulators and courts.