Memphis.
No market in America changed faster: Memphis went from an afterthought to roughly 845 MW — up 8,250% since 2022 — on the strength of one tenant. xAI's Colossus complex now spans ~2 GW across its sites, powered substantially by its own gas turbines and buffered by 168 Tesla Megapacks, with a Google campus planned across the river in Arkansas.
The market right now
Colossus 1 went from empty appliance factory to running supercomputer in 122 days, and that pace is the market's defining safety fact. The complex straddles a state line: the Memphis buildings sit under Tennessee's TOSHA state plan while the Southaven turbine plant answers to federal OSHA in Mississippi. Add TVA/MLGW grid feeds, on-site generation, and utility-scale battery storage, and you have the most electrically complicated campus in the South.
- Memphis-area data center capacity reached ~845 MW, up ~8,250% since 2022, driven almost entirely by xAI (Baxtel, 2026)
- xAI Colossus hit ~2 GW and 555,000+ GPUs across its sites by Jan 2026, an estimated $18B investment (Introl, 2026)
- Colossus 1, a 785,000 sq ft ex-Electrolux plant, was stood up in 122 days in 2024 and now runs ~230,000 GPUs (Introl, 2026)
- Mississippi's Permit Board approved 41 xAI gas turbines in Southaven in 2026 after reports of 59 running unpermitted (Mississippi Free Press; Technology.org, 2026)
- Google's planned West Memphis AR campus could involve bond issues totaling up to $60B (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 2026)
- 5C Data Centers is building a ~950,000 sq ft, 35 MW Memphis facility (Baxtel, 2026)
Every campus on the map
Solid copper markers are operating campuses; white markers are under construction; dashed outlines are announced or planned. Locations are approximate campus-level centroids compiled from public sources — county records, operator announcements, and market reports — as of August 2026. Dense clusters are grouped. Corrections are welcome through the contact page.
Operating campuses mapped
- xAI Colossus 1 — xAI · South Memphis (Paul R Lowry Rd). 785,000 sq ft ex-Electrolux plant; ~230k GPUs, ~300-500 MW; Anthropic renting capacity since May 2026 (Baxtel/Introl, 2026)
- xAI Colossus 2 Bldg 1 — xAI · Whitehaven, Memphis (Tulane Rd). ~1M sq ft site bought Mar 2025 for ~$80M; ~1 GW with GB200/GB300 GPUs; Google renting capacity to 2029 (Introl, 2026)
- DataBank MEM — DataBank · Appling Center, NE Memphis. Legacy enterprise colocation site serving regional business load (Baxtel)
- EdgeConneX Memphis — EdgeConneX · Memphis. Edge colocation facility; part of pre-xAI legacy colo base incl. Lumen and Expedient sites (Baxtel)
Under construction & planned
- xAI Colossus 2 Bldg 2 / third building — xAI · Memphis-Southaven corridor · under construction. ~500 MW third building purchased Dec 2025, taking the complex to ~2 GW; Q1-Q3 2026 buildout (Bloomberg; Introl, 2026)
- xAI Southaven power plant — xAI · Southaven, MS (DeSoto Co) · under construction. 41 gas turbines permitted by MS Permit Board 2026 to power Colossus; heavy community opposition (Mississippi Free Press, 2026)
- Google West Memphis — Google · West Memphis, AR · planned. Announced 2026; project bond issues could reach $60B (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, 2026)
- 5C Memphis — 5C Data Centers · Memphis · under construction. ~950,000 sq ft, 35 MW, est. delivery 2026 (Baxtel, 2026)
Power
Service territory: Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) · TVA · Entergy Arkansas (West Memphis side).
- MLGW/TVA grid feed to Colossus 1 was upgraded to 150 MW in Nov 2024; xAI self-generates much of its load on-site (press reports, 2024)
- xAI's on-site gas turbines are the market's defining issue: 41 permitted in Southaven 2026; NAACP/SELC/Earthjustice suing over unpermitted units (Earthjustice, 2026)
- 168 Tesla Megapack BESS units buffer GPU load swings at Colossus 1 (press reports, 2025)
- $80M wastewater recycling plant approved 2025 to reduce aquifer draw (~5M gal/day demand)
The regulatory picture
Enforcement. Tennessee is a state-plan state: TOSHA (TN Dept of Labor & Workforce Development) covers TN worksites; the Southaven MS side falls under federal OSHA Region 4 — a split jurisdiction across one campus.
Licensing. TN has no statewide journeyman card — electrical contractors need a TN CE license (Board for Licensing Contractors) and Memphis/Shelby County issue local electrician licenses; MS licenses electrical contractors via MSBOC.
Also in play. TN offers a qualified data center sales tax exemption; Shelby County Health Dept air permits and a Jan 2026 EPA rule closing the 'portable turbine' loophole are central to the xAI permitting fight.
What it means for the work
Hyperspeed schedules compress exactly the phases where 70E discipline matters most — first energization, phased turnover, testing beside live gear. And when the site generates its own power, 'establish an electrically safe work condition' involves sources a standard LOTO walk-down was never written for.
On-site generation at scale — dozens of gas turbines plus 168 Tesla Megapacks — means arc-flash, LOTO, and stored-energy hazards well beyond a normal utility-fed site
122-day hyperspeed builds compress commissioning and energization schedules, raising energized-work pressure on electrical crews
One campus, two OSHA regimes: TOSHA on the Tennessee side, federal OSHA in Southaven MS — contractors need programs that satisfy both
Phased medium-voltage energization while construction continues (Colossus 2 buildouts) is a classic NFPA 70E boundary-control challenge
Market context is half the picture. The other half is the decision walk — the nine questions the 2027 edition asks before anyone opens a door on energized gear. Run it against the task, then check the room pages in the Data Center Application Series.
NFPA 70E classes taught on the 2027 edition, against data center topology, about 55 times a year — live virtual weekly, and private onsite days in Memphis run against your one-lines for crews of 15 or more.