SpaceXAI is facing civil penalties of up to $6.1 million in Mississippi after starting work on data centers without the correct permits, the company disclosed in an SEC filing reported by Datacenter Dynamics on Saturday. The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality issued a notice to MZX Tech LLC, a SpaceXAI subsidiary, alleging that disturbing construction activities occurred before coverage under Mississippi’s Large Construction Stormwater General Permit. The regulator is seeking penalties of up to $25,000 per day, with preliminary claimed exposure of approximately $6.1 million across three sites.
The three sites form part of the company’s Memphis area cluster, across the state line in Mississippi. Two, named Macrohard and Macroharder, are operating, while the third, Minihard, remains under construction. The company said it is cooperating with the regulator and is in discussions to resolve the matters through a single agreed order.
The stormwater notice is the second legal setback this week. A federal judge rejected a Department of Justice attempt to block the NAACP’s lawsuit alleging that the company violated federal law and state regulations by constructing and operating a gas fired power plant in Southaven, Mississippi, without required permits. US District Judge Debra Brown held that the Environmental Protection Agency’s role as primary Clean Air Act enforcer does not give the federal government unilateral authority to dismiss the case. The NAACP is seeking civil penalties and an injunction to halt turbine operations.
The financial context makes the penalty look minor. SpaceX reported third quarter revenue of $14.58 billion this week, up 151 percent, with AI revenue of $7.6 billion and $16.4 billion of its $19.6 billion quarterly capital spending going to SpaceXAI. A $6.1 million exposure will not change that buildout. What it establishes, alongside the Southaven suit, is that the cluster’s permitting record is now a litigated fact pattern, and every future site in the cluster will be built under that scrutiny.