Fireside Alpha: Memphis Mayor Says SpaceX Data Center Taxes Doubled to $54 Million
JUST IN: Memphis Mayor reveals SpaceX data center taxes more than doubled to $54 million, after $25 million last year made it Shelby County’s second largest taxpayer Paul Young was asked about Elon Musk’s claim that data centers have Memphis booming: Q: “Recently, just speaking on the revenues the data centers are creating for Memphis. Elon Musk recently tweeted that Memphis is 'booming' because of the data centers. He said that hotels and restaurants are full and called, tax revenue in Memphis tremendous right now. Do you just have any thoughts on that?” YOUNG: “Well, we’ve talked a lot about the financial aspects of the project. I think that as we talk about data centers in our city, we want to talk about it in a balanced way. Of course there’s an economic side. We want to make sure that we are articulating what protections and guardrails we’re putting in place for the environmental sides that, people are concerned about, the quality of life, noise, traffic, all of those aspects." "But, there there is tax revenue. I think this year it was $54,000,000 in taxes that have been generated. And I know last year when they generated about $25,000,000 in tax revenue, it was the second largest tax paying property in Shelby County. I don’t know where $54,000,000 puts it, but it is significant taxes." "And so as we look at, the tax revenue, we also wanna look at how do we ensure that there are proper protections. That’s what this ninety day executive order has been about, and, it’s the conversation that we’ll continue to have with the community.”
Context
It puts a hard local revenue number on the AI data center buildout at the same moment towns elsewhere are blocking new projects over environmental and quality of life concerns.
The Memphis area hosts the large AI data center that Elon Musk's companies built to train Grok, which the post now describes as a SpaceX data center. The project has drawn local pushback over pollution, noise and power use. Musk recently posted that Memphis is booming because of the data centers, and the mayor was asked about that claim.
Deep dive
Fireside Alpha posted a video clip and transcript of Memphis Mayor Paul Young answering a question about Elon Musk's claim that data centers have Memphis booming, with full hotels and restaurants and strong tax revenue.
According to the quoted transcript, Young said he wants to discuss data centers in a balanced way, covering both the economic side and the protections and guardrails the city is putting in place for environmental concerns, quality of life, noise and traffic. He then said this year the project generated about $54 million in taxes, and that last year, at about $25 million, it was the second largest taxpaying property in Shelby County. He said he did not know where $54 million places it, but called it significant.
Young added that the city also wants to make sure proper protections are in place, and said that is what a ninety day executive order has been about. Katie Miller shared the same remarks, and Elon Musk reposted both posts. The figures come from the mayor's spoken remarks, not from a published county tax record.
What to expect next
Watch for Shelby County tax records that confirm the $54 million figure and for the outcome of the mayor's ninety day executive order on data center protections. With a Maryland community blocking a $5B AI data center the same day, local revenue against environmental cost is becoming the central argument in where new AI compute gets built. Other cities courting AI projects are likely to cite numbers like these in their own debates.