xAI, ProEnergy convert jet engines to power AI data centers

Across an Arizona boneyard and a Missouri conversion shop, retired aircraft engines are being retooled into on-site generators for AI data centers. The New York Times reports that Elon Musk's xAI has installed eight converted jet-engine turbines at a Mississippi data center, according to state permits and satellite imagery reviewed by the paper. Regulatory filings show other providers supplying power for Google data centers plan to use similar machines.

The generators come from ProEnergy, a Missouri outfit that repurposes General Electric turbines typically attached to Boeing aircraft. An executive told attendees at a Denver conference in September that demand from data centers was outpacing demand from traditional utilities. New York-based FTAI Aviation has launched a competing division that converts retired Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 engines on the same theory.

The permits are the pressure point. Mississippi has allowed xAI's turbines to emit carbon monoxide at twice the rate of other turbines at the site, with a 25 percent higher ceiling for volatile organic compounds. The Southern Environmental Law Center has challenged the approvals, arguing xAI has not shown the jet-powered turbines meet standards for pollutants including formaldehyde. "Repurposed aircraft turbines tend to be less efficient and more polluting than engines designed for conventional gas-burning plants," the paper notes.

The trend lands in the middle of a run of AI-power stories our climate tracker has logged 43 of over the past 90 days, alongside the DOE's recent pledge to Constellation for a 1.1 GW nuclear uprate.