Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence (AI) venture, SpaceXSI, is offering to buy out an entire neighborhood in Mississippi bordering its massive data center operations. But only under one condition: Residents must agree to drop or refrain from joining an ongoing noise-pollution lawsuit.

Real estate agents representing the tech trillionaire’s company have been canvassing Colonial Hills in Southaven, Miss., offering to purchase 418 homes at local market values — averaging roughly $180,000.

Under the terms of the deals, sellers must pledge not to participate in legal action against the company over the relentless roar produced by the gas turbines powering its GPU clusters. At least 18 homeowners have accepted terms so far.

The neighborhood sits roughly half a mile from the power infrastructure supporting the company’s Colossus 1 and 2 facilities, which drive Musk’s Grok AI models. Musk has reportedly taken a hands-on approach to the rapid expansion, staying up to four nights a week in an on-site Airstream trailer to supervise construction.

However, the rapid buildout has ignited fierce backlash across the state line from Memphis, where residents describe the industrial noise as an inescapable assault on everyday life.

“It sounds like an airplane engine, but it’s continuous; it’s incredibly loud,” said Elizabeth Rose, a piano teacher living two miles away, recounting sleepless nights caused by the drone.

Jason Haley, a plaintiff in the June class-action lawsuit against SpaceXSI, called the low-frequency vibrations and high-pitched whine “torturous,” adding, “It drives you insane… There’s no escape.”

The facilities have also drawn regulatory scrutiny for utilizing unpermitted gas turbines that generate significant air emissions. While the federal Environmental Protection Agency recently tightened rules classifying temporary turbines under standard Clean Air Act standards, SpaceXSI has relied on state-level enforcement gaps, promising only to retire unpermitted units within the next year as a dedicated 1.2-gigawatt power plant comes online.

In an open letter via operating subsidiary MZX, the company defended the property acquisitions as essential for “business purposes.”

Southaven Mayor Darren Musselwhite echoed that stance, dismissing concerns that Colonial Hills is becoming an industrial company town. Musselwhite characterized the initiative as corporate goodwill paired with workforce housing needs, stating municipal monitoring has not logged sound levels above the local 70-decibel limit — even as environmental health experts caution that chronic industrial noise exceeding 50 decibels can trigger significant physiological stress.

SpaceXSI denies all legal claims, arguing it has adjusted operating power and erected acoustic dampening walls to muffle the facilities.

The buyout blitz follows a largely unsuccessful public relations effort earlier this year, when the company offered half-priced Starlink satellite subscriptions to area households, an initiative that attracted only 2,000 subscribers out of an eligible pool of 250,000.

For many exhausted residents, the real estate buyout represents less of an olive branch than an ultimatum: Surrender their legal standing, or continue living in the shadow of AI’s loudest neighbor.