The offer, in the company's own words
Most buyout stories turn on price. This one turns on a sentence. The letter MZX sent to Southaven residents, published in full by the Mississippi Free Press in September, denies every allegation in the noise lawsuit and then makes its offer: the company "requires property for its business purposes" and is offering to purchase homes "in exchange for, among other things, a release of all claims related to the lawsuit." A second document, the release agreement, is signed when the sale closes. After that, the letter states, a seller cannot recover damages from the lawsuit and cannot bring claims of their own.
What the letter does not contain is a number. It does not say what a resident will be paid. The Guardian reports that offers are at market value, in a neighborhood where the average house costs about $180,000. So the exchange on paper is precise about the legal side and open on the financial side: the waiver is specified, the price is negotiated door to door.
What the record shows, and what a recording claims
The scale of the program depends entirely on which source you use. On a recording the Guardian heard, a realtor working on the sales told one homeowner that the target is 418 homes and that 18 owners have already agreed to sell. That would be most of a subdivision. Against that, DeSoto County records show five purchases by MZX since October 9. Five purchases equal about 1.2% of the realtor's stated 418-home target, if that target is accurate.
xAI did not answer the Guardian's questions about the 418 target or the 18 agreements, so neither figure carries the company's confirmation. The five recorded purchases do not disprove the larger ambition; buyout programs start with early closings. But as of this week, the documented program is five houses and a letter, and the 418 figure is a sales agent's statement made to a prospective seller, which is a context that rewards a sense of momentum. Residents deciding whether to hold out are entitled to know which of those two things they are looking at.
The case running alongside the sales
The lawsuit the release refers to was filed on June 8 by three Colonial Hills residents, among them Jason Haley, who has lived in his home for 20 years, about half a mile from the plant. The complaint alleges "near-constant noise, vibrations and other nuisance-level harms" from the 69 temporary turbines on the former Duke Energy site. It is filed as a class action, and its filings put more than 10,000 people inside the affected area across Southaven and neighboring Horn Lake.
That class definition is why each individual release matters beyond one house. Each signed release is intended to waive the seller's claims related to the lawsuit, potentially affecting that person's ability to seek damages or other relief. The exact effect on any future class action, or on a person's role as a witness, depends on the agreement and the court's treatment of it. The companies have moved to dismiss, and the case management conference was scheduled for October 29. The buyouts and the litigation are proceeding in parallel, and only one of them is bound by court timetables.
Two groups sit outside the transaction entirely. Renters in homes whose landlords accept are reported to have been given 60 days to leave; they hold no claim to release and receive no payment. The separate NAACP Clean Air Act lawsuit concerns the turbines' permit status and continues independently of the home purchases. MZX's letter, as published, ties the release of claims to the noise lawsuit; it does not say that accepting a buyout settles the separate environmental case.
The other reading
The company's stated case is not nothing. Mayor Darren Musselwhite says the purchased homes will house staff for a growing operation, which is an ordinary reason to buy property near a plant, and he has described the offers also as goodwill toward residents who dislike living next to one. He says city monitoring has found no breach of the 70-decibel noise ordinance. xAI, for its part, points to sound walls, silencers and varied turbine output.
Residents' accounts describe something an ordinance reading may not capture: a continuous sound one plaintiff calls torturous and a piano teacher, Elizabeth Rose, compares to an airplane engine that never passes. A neighbor, Gavin Foust, told the Guardian he will not sell, specifically because of the release condition. That split is central to the dispute: the mayor says city monitoring has found no breach of the local noise ordinance, while residents describe a continuous sound that disrupts sleep. MZX's letter identifies property acquisition as one business purpose and makes a release of lawsuit-related claims part of the offer. It does not expressly say the buyouts are intended to resolve the residents' reported noise problems.
Sources
- [1] The Guardian, "'Elonville': US residents say Musk's xAI offered to buy homes if they don't sue over datacenter noise," October 28, 2026 — door-to-door offers, the realtor recording (418 target, 18 agreements), DeSoto County records (five purchases since October 9), renter 60-day notices, resident accounts, the mayor's staff-housing explanation; read via secondary accounts carrying the Guardian's reporting, including the account at the next sourceRead source
- [2] Mississippi Free Press, MZX offer letter as published September 25, 2026 — the letter's denial, business-purposes wording, release condition, two-document process and no-stated-price point, quoted verbatim; the letter text as carried in the account above and in The AI Pin's sourced summaryRead source
- [3] Haley et al. v. X.AI Corp. et al., No. 3:26-cv-00148 (N.D. Miss.) — court order of June 10, 2026 in the docket (case number, parties, reassignment); the docket also records the motion to dismiss and the Rule 16.1 case management conference set for October 29, 2026Read source
- [4] AI Weekly alert, "xAI aims to buy 418 Mississippi homes to settle noise suit," October 2026 — lawsuit estimate of more than 10,000 people in the affected area and the two-signature process, as reported from the Guardian's coverageRead source