As Ted Townsend tells it, Elon Musk took roughly a week to decide to build the new supercomputer for his AI startup, xAI, in Memphis. After a whirlwind few days of negotiations in March, Musk and his team — which included representatives from several of his companies — opted for the Tennessee city because it offered ample access to power and the ability to build quickly, said Townsend, president of the Greater Memphis Chamber, an economic growth nonprofit that worked on the deal.

“We’re going to haul ass in Memphis,” Townsend recalls Musk saying of the project, which xAI’s contractors refer to as “Project Colossus.” It shares its name with the 1970 film, Colossus: The Forbin Project, about an out-of-control AI that was given control of the United States’ nuclear arsenal. “Colossus: Sees all. Senses all. Knows all. Controls all armaments and defenses. When this emotionless creation becomes the master of man, the result is catastrophic.” The multibillion dollar investment, according to Townsend’s estimate, was officially announced last month.

But several members of the Memphis City Council are now urging the city to pump the breaks on the effort amid an upwelling of community concern about the secretive nature of the deal and the data center’s requirements for electricity and water use. The council members alleged earlier this month at a public session that they were sidelined from the decision-making process, which was negotiated under NDA by Musk’s team, the Chamber and local utilities and contractors months before the data center’s details were ever presented to them. The Mayor’s Office and xAI did not respond to requests for comment.

"This is already here and we don't know anything," councilmember Rhonda Logan said of the supercomputer project during a recent city council session, stressing the need to "slow it down and understand the impacts."

“Memphis has had a history of bad deals … and it is very important that this is a good deal for Memphis.”

Councilmember Pearl Walker told Forbes that the development has caused “hysteria” among her constituents. “People are afraid. They’re afraid of what’s possibly going to happen with the water and they are afraid about the energy supply,” she said at a Wednesday morning public meeting held by the city’s utility, Memphis Light, Gas, and Water (MGLW).