xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk, plans to build a major data center called MACROHARDRR, in Southaven, Mississippi, committing more than US$ 20 billion to the project. This facility is being touted as the largest economic development project in the state’s history.
The company has purchased an existing building in Southaven, and is retrofitting it to house the data center. The site is located near xAI’s recently acquired power plant property, and close to the company’s existing data centers in Tennessee. The facility is expected to raise xAI’s total computing capacity to nearly 2 GW, xAI expects the data center to be fully operational in February 2026.
In a press release, State and local governments have expressed their support of the project through a combination of incentives. The Mississippi Development Authority approved xAI for its Data Center Incentive program, which exempts sales and use taxes on computing equipment and software for certified data centers. The City of Southaven and DeSoto County are also participating through fee-in-lieu agreements. Local officials said the investment will generate new tax revenue for public services, including public safety, education, health and human services, and parks.
Mississippi Governor, Tate Reeves, said, “This record-shattering US$ 20 billion investment is an amazing start to what is sure to be another incredible year for economic development in Mississippi. This is the largest economic development project in Mississippi’s history.”
Elon Musk, xAI, CEO said, “xAI is scaling at an immeasurable pace, we are building our third massive data center in the greater Memphis area. MACROHARDRR pushes our Colossus training compute to ~2GW – by far the most powerful AI system on Earth.”
Mississippi Development Authority Executive Director Bill Cork said, “Our focus on speed, certainty and readiness allows companies to move quickly and with confidence, while also enabling Mississippi to compete for capital-intensive, advanced technology projects like xAI.”
Founded in 2023, and headquartered in Silicon Valley, xAI develops artificial intelligence technologies across the AI, social media, and broader technology sectors. Its main product is Grok, a generative AI chatbot integrated with the social media platform X.