The Tennessee city that hosts Elon Musk’s data centers cleared the first hurdle toward passing a moratorium on new facilities Tuesday.
The ordinance before the Memphis City Council would not apply to xAI’s existing data centers but would pause approvals of new ones until officials can consider new zoning requirements.
Sponsor JB Smiley Jr., said Tuesday he decided to propose the measure after learning via social media that the company is already building a fourth data center on land it already owns. Musk announced the facility on the social media platform X two weeks ago.
“Not only did the council not know, but the community and residents did not know,” Smiley said during a City Council meeting Tuesday. “I think the council deserves to be treated with respect by the people who are pushing these data centers in our community.”
