A Tennessee resident who bought explosives and threatened to burn down a data center in Memphis belonging to Elon Musk's xAI has been charged with terrorism.

Ethan Early, 25, of Ashland City, Tennessee, was charged with an act of terrorism on February 20, according to court records. The charge was first reported by USA Today.

According to the affidavit, Early told friends he intended to burn down the data center, which is home to the Colossus supercomputer built by xAI, an AI startup founded by Musk.

Police were tipped off that he had started to purchase thermite, a pyrotechnic compound classified as an illegal explosive that creates brief heat bursts that can reach temperatures of 24,900 degrees Celcius (45,000 degrees Farenheit).

Though friends convinced him to throw the material away, when questioned at his home by police, Early admitted he was considering burning down Musk’s “AI factory in Memphis,” telling officers he had become “too wrapped up in politics.” Musk, a high-profile supporter of Donald Trump, has played a key role in the new US government’s efforts to make swinging cuts across multiple federal agencies.

Early was remanded in custody, with bail set at $500,000.

xAI’s Memphis data center opened last year in a former Electrolux factory. It is home to Colossus, a supercomputer that runs on 100,000 GPUs and used to train the company’s Grok chatbot. Musk said in October 2024 that plans are afoot to increase this to 200,000, and the company has since revealed it eventually wants to grow its cluster to one million GPUs.

However, the development has proved controversial with some Memphians due to the strain it could put on local power and water infrastructure. Last month, xAI revealed it was funding an $80 million treatment plant, which will help it clean up waste water for use in the data center and by other local businesses.