xAI subsidiary offers to buy Southaven homes near its turbine plant if owners release their noise claims

Homeowners in Southaven, Mississippi, who live near the gas turbines powering xAI's data centers are being offered a way out of the noise, with one condition attached. MZX Tech, the xAI subsidiary that operates the plant, has been sending letters through a local real estate broker offering to buy their houses if they sign a release of all claims connected to a noise lawsuit filed against the company in June.

The letters, first reported by the Mississippi Free Press and DeSoto Times-Tribune in late September and reproduced by FOX13 Memphis, say MZX denies all of the allegations against it but requires property for its business purposes. They list no prices. The Mississippi Free Press reported the offers are based on Zillow value estimates. The letters describe the offer as voluntary, include links to the lawsuit and contact details for the lawyers who filed it, and state that anyone who signs the release cannot later recover damages from what the letter calls the Haley lawsuit.

A 418-home target, according to an agent

The scale of the effort came into focus on Wednesday. The Guardian reported that in recordings it obtained, a real estate agent working for the company described a goal of buying 418 homes and said 18 households had already agreed to sell. The company has not confirmed either number or explained what it intends to do with the properties, according to 24/7 Wall St., which summarized the Guardian's reporting. DeSoto County records show five purchases in the Colonial Hills neighborhood since October 9.

Elizabeth Rose, a resident, told The Guardian the plant sounds like a continuous airplane engine and that it has woken her at 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. She said she fears the buyouts will spread across the whole neighborhood, which she called Elonville.

The lawsuit the release covers

Jason Haley, Preston Herrington and Taylor Logsdon sued xAI and MZX Tech in June in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi. They want to represent a class of neighbors the complaint estimates at more than 10,000 people in Southaven and Horn Lake. The suit brings five claims, including private and public nuisance, negligence and negligent infliction of emotional distress, and describes squealing, roaring, rumbling and humming from the temporary turbines that it blames for headaches, lost sleep and lower property values. The Mississippi Free Press counted 69 turbines on the site as of July 31.

The buyout letters apply to homes inside a defined area: Nail Road to the south, Highway 51 to the east, Stateline Road West to the north, and roughly a mile west of Horn Lake Road. Robert Wiygul, an attorney for the plaintiffs, told 24/7 Wall St. that anyone living in the area, including renters, is eligible to be part of the class. DeSoto County News reported in September that a first conference on whether the case can proceed as a class action was set for October 29 in Oxford.

Noise readings cited in the dispute have reached about 70 decibels. That is below the 85 decibels federal health officials associate with hearing damage, though residents and some research tie lower, persistent levels to sleep and mood problems. Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite has said city monitoring found no violation of the local 70-decibel ordinance.

Voluntary, says the mayor

Musselwhite has defended the purchases. In an October 1 blog post and at an October 6 Board of Aldermen meeting, he called the buyouts good corporate citizenship and a parallel approach to reducing noise, said the homes could house company employees, and said the company has accelerated plans to replace the temporary turbines with permanent, quieter units. Nobody is being forced to sell, he said, and the program is totally voluntary. He has rejected the description of the plan as a company town.

The company says it wants to be a good neighbor and has pointed to mitigation steps, including varying turbine output and building sound-dampening walls. State regulators have set dates for retiring the temporary turbines. The NAACP filed a separate Clean Air Act case in April over the same turbines, and a federal court allowed that case to proceed after the Justice Department moved to end it.

Renters get the notice, not the offer

The offers go to owners, and some of the homes are rentals. Mississippi Today reported on Danielle Dillard, 37, who rents less than a mile from the plant. Her landlord took a buyout in late September and gave her 60 days to move, a month after she had extended her lease. Neither the landlord nor the company offered to cover her moving costs. It was never optional, she said. Census estimates cited by Mississippi Today put renters at between one-third and two-thirds of households in the neighborhoods covered by the class action.

Sam Buchanan Jr. of the Mississippi Center for Legal Services Corporation said tenants cannot simply be put out at a landlord's whim, and lawyers told Mississippi Today that state law generally does not let a landlord end a fixed-term lease early without an early-termination clause or the tenant's agreement. Musselwhite said rental turnover is nothing new and has nothing to do with development in Southaven.

Money now, or a case that could take years

Mike Working, a Memphis-area attorney not involved in the case, told FOX13 the offer amounts to money now in exchange for finality, and that a lawsuit of this kind can take years to resolve. For someone living next to what he described as huge gas turbines that sound like a factory, taking the money and leaving may look reasonable. Tanya Bardonner, who lives inside the boundary, told the station she would sell in a heartbeat if a letter arrived.

Wiygul's advice was to weigh the offer against what has actually been lost. Each person, he said, has to decide whether a buyout makes them whole. 24/7 Wall St. suggested sellers compare any offer with the cost of a comparable home plus closing and moving costs, and have a lawyer with no ties to the buyer value the claim they would be giving up.

xAI was folded into SpaceX earlier this year, and some coverage now refers to the company as SpaceXAI. Whatever the name, the Southaven buyouts are being watched beyond Mississippi. Data center opposition has become a live political issue ahead of next week's midterm elections, and a certification ruling in the Haley case would signal whether releases tied to home sales become a template for other communities living next to AI infrastructure.