What Happened: The Shelby County Health Department issued the permit on Wednesday, allowing xAI to operate 15 gas turbines at its Colossus data center, which powers the Grok AI model, reported CNBC.

The permit enforces emissions limits and testing requirements, with non-compliance penalties reaching $10,000 per day.

See Also: Trump Says He'll Skip Trade Deals, Set Global Tariffs With A Letter: ‘Pay A 25% Tariff, Or 20%, Or 40 Or 50%'

Satellite images taken Tuesday reportedly show 24 turbines at the site, exceeding the permitted number. Previously, the site hosted as many as 35 turbines, with more than 15 operating at once, the report said.

Why It's Important: xAI's Memphis supercomputer is central to Musk's ambitions to compete with OpenAI's ChatGPT and Alphabet Inc.'s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google's Gemini.

Earlier this week, it was announced that xAI has raised $10 billion in debt and equity.

The company is also reportedly in discussions to raise around $20 billion in equity funding, which could value it at over $120 billion, with some investors estimating its worth could reach as high as $200 billion.

Munster added that the total cost of acquiring these chips could range from $30 billion to $40 billion.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.