--- title: "xAI bought jet engines for Colossus 2, but its legal power is cut in half by July 2027" description: "xAI's Colossus 2 cluster is racing toward 1.2 million GPUs on power it is legally scheduled to lose: a July 30, 2026, order cuts its turbines from 2.7GW to 1.24GW by July 2027, and SemiAnalysis sees a gap of upwards of 300MW." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Power" published: 2026-11-04T17:11:21.180Z modified: 2026-11-04T17:11:21.180Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/xai-bought-jet-engines-for-colossus-2-but-its-legal-power-is-cut-in-half-by-july-2027 language: en keywords: "XAI, SpaceX, Data Centers, Power Generation, Regulation" --- # xAI bought jet engines for Colossus 2, but its legal power is cut in half by July 2027 > xAI's Colossus 2 cluster is racing toward 1.2 million GPUs on power it is legally scheduled to lose: a July 30, 2026, order cuts its turbines from 2.7GW to 1.24GW by July 2027, and SemiAnalysis sees a gap of upwards of 300MW. The power that runs [Elon Musk](https://theinference.org/markets/people/elon-musk)'s AI cloud is on a deadline. On November 3 the New York Times reported, [from state permits and satellite imagery](https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/03/data-centers-are-turning-to-old-jet-engines-as-the-wait-for-power-grows/), that [xAI](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/xai) has installed eight converted jet-engine turbines at the Southaven, Mississippi plant that feeds its Colossus 2 data center cluster near Memphis [7][1]. ProEnergy rebuilt them from CF6-80C2 cores, the same engine that flew on [Boeing](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/boeing) 747s; each is rated 50MW in the state air permit, roughly 400MW together [7][8]. xAI is now part of [SpaceX](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/spacex), and these sites are the foundation of the company's AI cloud. The engines buy speed, and the speed advantage expires on a schedule. A binding requirement signed July 30, 2026, [a state order restricting which turbines may run and when](https://newsletter.semianalysis.com/p/elon-is-doing-it-again-spacex-will), cuts the Southaven site's legal nameplate capacity, its maximum rated output before derates, from 2.7GW today to 1.24GW by July 2027, making 41 permitted turbines the permanent power source [2][7]. ## The arithmetic does not close [SemiAnalysis](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/semianalysis)'s power model works it this way: the regional utility, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), has received grid service requests of 700MW for Macrohard and 450MW for MiniHard, about 1.2GW that would serve those two of the five Colossus 2 sites in full [2]. That leaves roughly 1.3GW of compute to be fed by 1.24GW of nameplate generation, which then takes a further haircut on efficiency and derate [2]. Hence SemiAnalysis's conclusion that "there could be a gap upwards of 300MW" [2]. Its proposed fix is a battery field nearing 5.9GWh, lower-power racks and tiered uptime promises [2]. None of that is permitted or contracted; it is SemiAnalysis's projection [2]. All of it sits on a campus meant to hold [about 1.2 million Blackwell GPUs by the end of 2026](https://www.blocksandfiles.com/flash/2026/11/04/musks-colossus-dc-cluster-whats-the-storage-situation/5307253) [2][3]. *Chart: **Colossus 2's legal power ceiling falls from 2.7GW to 1.24GW by July 2027** Bar chart: Southaven legal nameplate of 2.7GW now and 1.24GW by July 2027; TVA grid service requests of 700MW for Macrohard and 450MW for MiniHard; and an estimated power gap of about 300MW at Colossus 2.* *Gigawatts of nameplate capacity and grid service requests at the Colossus 2 / Southaven site. The gap bar is SemiAnalysis's conditional estimate ('could be a gap upwards of 300MW'), not a reported figure. Sources: SemiAnalysis Energy Model (4 Nov 2026) [2]; TechCrunch citing the New York Times (3 Nov 2026) [1]. [2][1]* ## Everyone else is still waiting for the grid Hooking 100MW up in Northern Virginia takes about seven years, per the International Energy Agency, which is why operators buy jet engines that run in 24 months [1]. [Entergy](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/entergy), the utility whose Mississippi territory holds the site, [told investors on November 2](https://www.tecshx.com/news/entergy-q3-2026-data-center-pipeline-7-12-gw-ten-gas-plants-under-construction) that data-center interest there totals 7 to 12GW with none of it in its base plan [4]. Its Mississippi peak load rose 11 percent as data centers ramped [4]. The biggest tenant makes its own power, off the rate base (outside the utility's regulated costs that set customer bills), under a court order: on October 30 Judge Debra Brown [let the NAACP's Clean Air Act suit over the portable turbines proceed](https://theinference.org/article/a-judge-called-xai-s-turbines-what-they-are-and-now-grok-s-power-bill-has-a-court-date) [8][4]. ## The risk is not hypothetical [The NAACP claims the 27 turbines built without permits](https://thenextweb.com/news/xai-naacp-lawsuit-gas-turbines-motion-to-dismiss-denied) could emit about 1,700 tons of nitrogen oxides a year and seeks penalties of up to $124,426 a day per violation; a preliminary injunction motion is still pending [8]. The jet-engine permits themselves are on appeal: the units may emit double the carbon monoxide allowed for the plant's 33 other turbines and 25 percent more volatile organic compounds, and [the Mississippi Permit Board hears that appeal on November 9](https://www.aol.com/articles/elon-musks-ai-company-installs-204550000.html) [7][1]. More than 100,000 people live within five miles of the sites [7]. SemiAnalysis's 13GW-in-2027 and $300 billion-plus ARR scenario for SpaceX rests on megawatts this cluster is scheduled to lose [2]. So does Grok Bot, which [hit 800,000 paid weekly users in October](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/elon-musk-ai-problem-people-114505552.html) while Musk called its serving cost "unsustainably high relative to revenue" [5]. For SpaceX holders, the discipline follows from the dates: the November 9 permit appeal and the July 2027 nameplate cut decide whether the compute is actually powered, so the revenue ramp should not be paid for before both settle [2][7]. Until then, what is contracted at Southaven is 1.24GW of legal generation by next summer, and everything above it is projection [2][7]. ## Takeaway A July 30, 2026 state order halves Southaven's legal generation to 1.24GW by July 2027 while Colossus 2 races to 1.2 million GPUs; with the permit appeal heard November 9, everything above 1.24GW is projection, not contracted power. ## Sources 1. [TechCrunch, Data centers are turning to old jet engines as the wait for power grows, 3 November 2026](https://techcrunch.com/2026/11/03/data-centers-are-turning-to-old-jet-engines-as-the-wait-for-power-grows/) 2. [SemiAnalysis, Elon Is Doing It Again: SpaceX Will Be The World's Biggest AI Cloud, 4 November 2026](https://newsletter.semianalysis.com/p/elon-is-doing-it-again-spacex-will) 3. [Blocks & Files, Musk's Colossus DC cluster: what's the storage situation?, 4 November 2026](https://www.blocksandfiles.com/flash/2026/11/04/musks-colossus-dc-cluster-whats-the-storage-situation/5307253) 4. [TECS Engineering, Entergy Sees 7 to 12 GW of Data Center Interest, Builds Gas Plants, 4 November 2026](https://www.tecshx.com/news/entergy-q3-2026-data-center-pipeline-7-12-gw-ten-gas-plants-under-construction) 5. [Yahoo Finance (Benzinga), Elon Musk Has an AI Problem: People Are Using Grok Too Much, 3 November 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/elon-musk-ai-problem-people-114505552.html) 7. [AOL (Daily Caller News Foundation), Elon Musk's AI Company Installs Converted Jet Engines To Help Power Its Memphis Data Center, 3 November 2026](https://www.aol.com/articles/elon-musks-ai-company-installs-204550000.html) 8. [The Next Web, Judge rejects xAI's bid to dismiss NAACP lawsuit over its gas turbines, 1 November 2026](https://thenextweb.com/news/xai-naacp-lawsuit-gas-turbines-motion-to-dismiss-denied) --- xAI bought jet engines for Colossus 2, but its legal power is cut in half by July 2027 — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/xai-bought-jet-engines-for-colossus-2-but-its-legal-power-is-cut-in-half-by-july-2027