Aug 28 (Reuters) - Elon Musk's AI startup, xAI, is

facing criticism from environmental and health advocates for

allegedly contributing to pollution in Memphis, Tennessee, by

using natural gas-burning turbines at its data center without

obtaining necessary permits.

The Southern Environmental Law Center sent a letter to the

Environmental Protection Agency and the health department in

Shelby County where the data center is located.

"Despite installing nearly 20 gas turbines with a combined

capacity of about 100 MW - enough electricity to power around

50,000 homes - xAI apparently has not applied for any air

permits for these turbines," the letter, dated Aug. 26, said.

The environmental legal advocacy organization called on the

county's health department to verify if xAI is operating these

turbines without the required air permits and take enforcement

action.

It said the gas turbines emit large quantities of gases that

exacerbate already poor air quality in Memphis.

Musk said late last month a cluster of powerful Nvidia H100

chips started training xAI's Grok AI model and dubbed the

Tennessee data center as "the most powerful AI training cluster

in the world".

He added the facility will provide a significant advantage

in training the world's most powerful AI by December.

Elon Musk and xAI did not immediately respond to requests

for comment.

The startup, founded by Musk last year and valued at more

than $24 billion in May, was billed as a competitor to OpenAI,

Alphabet's Google and Anthropic. It recently launched

Grok 2 series of language models earlier this month.