Memphis and Southaven
xAI’s Colossus 2, on both sides of the Tennessee–Mississippi line. What it’s like to work here, what it costs, and the question to ask about pay.
First edition. Some sections are still being sourced, and they say so. Know something we got wrong? Tell us.
The builders say they haven’t been paid
Darana Hybrid, the Ohio contractor that built both Colossus sites, says it’s owed “north of $600 million.” Its CEO has filed liens of $118 million on the Tulane Road site and $18 million on Paul Lowry Road, and says a $400 million lien on the Southaven plant is next. xAI didn’t answer the reporters who asked.
In September a pipe supplier, Ferguson Enterprises, filed a $4.2 million lien on Colossus 2 for pipe, valves and fittings.
Your check comes from your employer, not xAI. But a company that isn’t getting paid can’t keep paying you for long. Ask about it before you drive.
What’s being built
- Colossus 2, on Tulane Road in Whitehaven, Memphis. In March xAI filed a permit for a $659 million, four‑story building on the parcel next to it.
- Colossus 1, the old Electrolux plant on Paul Lowry Road in southwest Memphis.
- A new data center in Southaven, Mississippi, on the old police training grounds off Tulane Road. The work there takes thousands of workers, local reporting says.
General contractors and how many are on site: we’re still sourcing this. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
Your employer is the company doing your trade’s work — not xAI. Get its name before you agree to anything.
Nineteen more of these are coming
Eight guides are written. Leave an address and the next one reaches you when it is done — nothing here is behind a wall, and nothing else gets sent.
Each new site guide when it’s done, and a note when a new tool goes up. Nothing else, ever.
A big city, so beds exist
Unlike most sites on our map, this one is inside a big city. What a bed costs near the state line is the open question.
Rents, hotels and RV parks: we’re still sourcing this. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
Park in Southaven, ride the shuttle
For the Southaven site, workers park at a shuttle lot on Elvis Presley Boulevard, a couple of miles from the gate. Neighbors see four or five buses at a time, day and night. A Southaven church leased 800 parking spaces to the job.
People living on the last streets of Memphis before the line say their own commutes have gotten longer.
Traffic counts and the Memphis‑side gates: we’re still sourcing this. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
Two states, two sets of halls
We’re still sourcing this. Which locals hold the Tennessee side and which hold the Mississippi side is the open question. We confirm a hall’s jurisdiction on its own page or by phone before we print it. Check back, or get an email when it’s in.
Ask whether your package is union, merit shop, or both. It decides your rate, your overtime and whether a hall can help you.
How the one-year rule works
What counts is how long the job was expected to run. Not how long it actually runs.
- Expected to run a year or less, and it does. Per diem stays out of your wages.
- Expected to run longer than a year. Wages from your first day, however long it actually runs.
- Expected short, then extended past a year. Wages from the day a year or less stopped being realistic — not your 365th day, and not when the paperwork catches up.
It doesn’t reach back. Expect nine months, get extended at month eight, and the first eight months stand. That’s the IRS’s own example. The day you were told matters more than anything else here.
Keep three things: what you were told at the start (offer letter, requisition, the recruiter’s text), the day the extension came down and who it came from, and proof of a home you pay for while you’re away. Without that last one, none of the per diem was tax‑free to begin with.
What you’d actually keep here
The per diem on each side of the line, the tax on each side, and what to ask before you accept.
The state line changes your money
The per diem rate follows where the work is, not where you sleep.
- Memphis (Shelby County): $135 lodging plus $74 meals, $209 a day, since 1 October 2026. Tennessee doesn’t tax wages.
- Southaven (DeSoto County): $132 lodging plus $68 meals, $200 a day. Mississippi taxes wages at 4.0% for 2026.
Same company, same week: which side of the line your work is on can change both your rate and your tax.
xAI builds in fast phases, one after another, at the same campus. Each phase may be short. Roll from one to the next without a break and the months add up — past a year, and your per diem is taxed from the day that became the plan.
Ask how long your part is expected to run, and get it in writing.
Before you accept
- Is my employer being paid on this job? Has anyone filed a lien against the company I’d work for, or the one above it?
- Is my work in Tennessee or Mississippi?
- How long is my part expected to run? Will they put it in writing?
- Is the per diem taxed from day one, or could it get reclassified later?
- Who is my employer, and is my package union?
- Where do I park, and is the shuttle time paid?
If they can’t answer the first two, you don’t have enough to decide.
Run the whole offer through the calculator.
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Sources
- Darana Hybrid’s claims and liens: WMC Action News 5 via WSMV, August 2026.
- Ferguson’s lien: WMC Action News 5 via WSMV, September 2026.
- The $659 million permit: Action News 5, March 2026.
- Southaven traffic, the shuttle lot and the church lot: WREG, October 2026.
- Per diem rates: GSA, fiscal year 2027 (Tennessee and Mississippi tables, checked 22 October 2026). Mississippi’s rate: EY on HB 1, April 2025.
- The one-year rule: IRS Publication 463 and Tax Topic 511.