It was 4 a.m. on a Sunday and 46-year-old Jason Haley was once again wide awake.
The suburban silence that Haley had grown used to in his two decades as a resident of Southaven, Mississippi, had, for the last few months, been replaced by a constant whirring, like an airplane hovering over his home, he said.
The noise keeping Haley awake was coming from a plant powering Elon Musk's xAI data centers in the area, according to a lawsuit filed in June against the company and its subsidiary, MZX Tech. Haley and two other Southaven residents, who live within a mile of the plant, allege in the suit that "near-constant" noise and vibrations are causing negative physical and psychological health effects.
The filing comes amid growing resistance toward data center development, with the majority of Americans opposing local construction of a data center, according to a Gallup poll published earlier this year.
Similar disputes are playing out across the country, like in Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, where a lawsuit this month filed by residents alleges a data center emits "unreasonable and excessive noise" onto residents' properties and in Lowell, Massachusetts, where noise from a data center's cooling center "disrupts neighbors' sleep," according to an April suit.
There are more than 4,000 data centers in the U.S., according to a recent United Nations report. To power the data centers, developers are building their own plants, sometimes with little warning to residents like Haley.
Haley reached out to Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite about the noise in emails he shared with CBS News. In one last November, he urged Musselwhite to drive through the neighborhood "and take a listen to the constant high pitch noises."
"I am aware of the noise and working on a solution with xAI officials," Musselwhite had responded to Haley an hour later. "It is a problem," he said in another email later in the day.
But soon, another sleepless night rolled around and Haley was emailing the mayor again.
"Anyone else I can reach out to?" Haley wrote to Musselwhite. "It's almost 4 am and I can hear it from my bed. The high pitch and roaring combined is full force at this time. My ears are ringing. I can't live in this. How was this ever approved?"
"I don't care that this is Elon's project"
Just north of Southaven, which sits on the Mississippi-Tennessee border, xAI's data center Colossus went online in Memphis in September 2024. The company dubbed it "the world's largest AI supercomputer."
By late July 2025, Musk was announcing that another data center, Colossus 2, was set to begin operation in the area within weeks.
Days later, an announcement popped into the Facebook feeds of Southaven residents: An energy facility that had been dormant for decades will be revived to support xAI's expanding data center operations in the area, Musselwhite said.
The post was met by a flood of comments, with some lauding the development and others expressing concern about the plant's impact on the environment and strain on local resources.
Meanwhile, Haley started hearing sounds.
"My first thought was somebody's got a leaf blower going all the time," he said.
By December, the noise had become a fixture. He started getting headaches, stopped getting sleep and slipped into feelings of hopelessness and depression. The noise was inescapable, he said, and despite his best efforts to drown it out (sleeping with earplugs, getting a box fan for white noise), it continued to drone on.
So Haley began speaking up — at city government meetings, on Facebook and through TikTok, where he posts videos of himself measuring the noise with a sound meter. He later became involved in a grassroots coalition called Safe and Sound, drawing awareness to concerns surrounding xAI's undertakings in the region.
The "activist" label is one he's reluctantly accepted.
"I've never been into any kind of activism, never really kept up with politics a whole lot," he said. "I'm just a guy that has a problem with this noise, and started speaking out and trying to raise awareness."
When he emailed Musselwhite about the noise again in December, his message came with a disclosure: "I am not a republican or democrat, I don't care that this is Elon's project. I didn't know whose it was when I started complaining about the noise that started in August."
Musselwhite responded a few days later.
"As I mentioned to you in the public meeting, you seem to be a reasonable person," he said. "I will give you some unsolicited advice from an older man, be careful with whom you associate so you don't damage your credibility."
By January, xAI was expanding its footprint with a third data center in Southaven, MACROHARDDR. As residents like Haley continued pushing back online and in city meetings, Musselwhite had a new message.
Southaven, he said in a Facebook post, was "under attack by all who choose to oppose Elon Musk because of his high-profile political stances." He warned residents to "beware of the smokescreen of radical politics."
In his emails to Haley, Musselwhite continued to acknowledge the noise as a problem.
"The noise issue is one of my highest priorities and I have been in detailed discussions with xAI and many independent professionals to resolve this," he wrote in March.
But in the same email, he offered Haley more advice: "I know they want houses for employees, so you may want to consider selling your home."
CBS News made multiple attempts to speak with Musselwhite and did not receive a reply.
Migraines, ringing ears and sleepless nights
Moving isn't Haley's preference, but he said he is in the financial position to do so if he chooses.
That's not the case for everyone.
A little over a decade ago, 31-year-old Taylor Logsdon bought a home for her growing family in Southaven and began building her life around it.
"We loved it here," she said. "It was peaceful, it was quiet, didn't have to worry about nothing."
But that was before the noise, so loud, she said, that it sometimes shakes her home. Logsdon, who is also involved in the Safe and Sound coalition and is suing xAI with Haley and one other Southaven resident, said she has experienced migraines and anxiety as a result of the noise.
She said she has persistent ringing in her ears and so do her children. A full night of sleep has become rare for the family.
"I would move tomorrow if I could," she said, adding that she needs to save money before she can afford to move.
Her children, all under the age of 13, are having trouble staying awake at school.
"One of them is extra angry all the time — never, never has been that way, but he's just irritable like all the time," she said. "I feel like I'm snappier too."
xAI spent millions of dollars trying to mitigate the sound with a sound wall, a berm and evergreen trees, Musselwhite said in a February Facebook post.
"It still hasn't helped. It hasn't even put a dent in it," Logsdon said.
People living in areas where there is "constant humming or buzzing" report headaches, stress and sleep disturbance, said Dr. Samoon Ahmad, a clinical professor of psychiatry at New York University.
A 2023 study found that environmental noise exposure can lead to adverse associations for cardiovascular disease and mortality, diabetes, hearing impairment, neurological disorders and adverse reproductive outcomes.
"People think of annoyance as an abstract term," Ahmad said. "It's not an abstract term because it has real physiological ramifications."
The World Health Organization recommends less than 40 decibels of annual average nighttime noise outside of bedrooms to prevent adverse health effects. Haley has recorded noise levels over 60 decibels as late as 10:15 p.m. from his Southaven backyard.
Musk's Memphis
Even before Logsdon and Haley decided to take action against xAI, Musk's growing presence in the Memphis area garnered attention from advocacy groups over health and environmental concerns.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People filed a lawsuit in April against xAI claiming the Southaven plant emits "significant" amounts of harmful pollutants from its 27 gas turbines, which has since increased to 59, according to a court filing reviewed by CBS News. The NAACP has also filed an appeal to challenge the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality's decision to issue an air permit allowing the Southaven plant to operate 41 permanent methane gas turbines. An independent study found their operation would increase air pollution in an area already grappling with a disproportionate number of asthma-related emergency room visits.
CBS News has reached out to xAI for comment.
Musk's investment in the latest Southaven data center brings his company's contribution to the area to $20 billion, according to the office of Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves. The governor called it "the largest economic development project in Mississippi's history."
Musk's financial footprint has also extended beyond the data centers — MZX Tech donated over $1.3 million to the Southaven Police Department in February, according to the donation agreement obtained by CBS News, and has offered half-priced Starlink for those in the Memphis region.
But Logsdon says the cost to her and her family's health has her wondering why it feels like her city is willing to "hurt the few to get the benefits."
"We were not a failure town before," Logsdon said. "It's not like our economics were terrible here."
Southaven had a median household income of over $70,000 in 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — $20,000 more than the state average.
Logsdon, currently a stay-at-home mom, will be searching for work this fall so she and her husband can start saving up to move away from the plant. For now, her goal is a full night's sleep.
"I hope that my family can go back to having our normal," she said. "Being able to sleep at night, being able to enjoy my backyard, being able to go swimming."
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