JACKSON — xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk, plans to locate a major data center in Southaven, a project expected to represent more than $20 billion in corporate investment and create hundreds of permanent jobs in DeSoto County.
State officials announced the project this week, calling it the largest economic development investment in Mississippi history.
The company has purchased an existing building in Southaven and is retrofitting it to house the new data center, which will be known as MACROHARDRR. The site is located near a power plant recently acquired by xAI and close to one of the company’s existing data centers in Tennessee. Once operational, the Southaven facility is expected to increase xAI’s computing capacity to nearly 2 gigawatts.
Gov. Tate Reeves said the investment will have long-term economic impacts across north Mississippi.
“This record-shattering $20 billion investment is an amazing start to what is sure to be another incredible year for economic development in Mississippi,” Reeves said in a statement. “This is the largest economic development project in Mississippi’s history.”
In addition to rehabilitating the building, the project is expected to generate tax revenue to support public safety, health and human services, education, police and fire protection, parks and other city services in Southaven, according to state officials.
The Mississippi Development Authority approved xAI for its Data Center Incentive program, which provides a sales and use tax exemption on computing equipment and software for certified data centers. The City of Southaven and DeSoto County are also supporting the project through fee-in-lieu agreements.
MDA Executive Director Bill Cork said the investment underscores the state’s efforts to attract large-scale technology projects.
“Our focus on speed, certainty and readiness allows companies to move quickly and with confidence,” Cork said. “These investments bring new, high-quality jobs to the people of Mississippi and place our state at the center of the ‘Digital Delta.’”
Musk said the Southaven facility will be the company’s third major data center in the greater Memphis area and will significantly expand its artificial intelligence training capabilities.
“MACROHARDRR pushes our Colossus training compute to about 2 gigawatts — by far the most powerful AI system on Earth,” Musk said in a statement. “This is insane execution speed by xAI and the state of Mississippi.”
Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, xAI develops artificial intelligence technologies and operates in the AI, social media and technology sectors. The company’s flagship product is Grok, a generative AI chatbot integrated with the social media platform X. xAI also offers application programming interface tools and a suite of AI products designed for federal, state and local government use.
The company expects to begin data center operations in Southaven in February 2026.
