Elon Musk, CEO of the artificial intelligence company xAI and electric vehicle company Tesla, has donated 500 generators to the Nashville area as tens of thousands of households remain without power following last week’s Winter Storm Fern.
The generator donations are being made through Musk’s company xAI, which operates facilities in Memphis and plans to build the world’s largest supercomputer there – representing the largest capital investment by a new-to-market company in the city’s history.
The company said it made the donation in consultation with the governor and local authorities, adding that the units will be distributed to “families in need” through Nashville Electric Service (NES).
You’re most welcome. We’re working on providing Tesla Powerwalls too.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 2, 2026
xAI has also coordinated a delivery of an additional 500 generators to North Mississippi to further assist with storm recovery efforts.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee thanked Musk and xAI for the donations of generators, writing in a social media post, “Tennesseans without power need immediate help.”
“I’m deeply grateful to [Elon Musk] and [xAI] for going above & beyond to support Tennesseans by donating hundreds of generators to fill the gap, & I value their continued partnership to solve problems & support communities across our state,” the governor added.
Musk also confirmed he is “working on” sending Tesla Powerwalls to the Nashville area amid the ongoing outages, compact home batteries that can store energy generated by solar panels or the grid.
#NESOutageAlert February 1 9:45pm
Storm Restoration Timeline:
The charts below give you an indication of estimated restoration progress. Rest assured, work will continue every day in every zip code. The dates listed represent the range of time when the entire zip code is… pic.twitter.com/yAAC8zqN2v— Nashville Electric Service (@NESpower) February 2, 2026
As of Monday at noon, NES reported 24,715 of its customers were affected by outages.
On Sunday, NES released an updated outage restoration timeline, indicating that all customers can expect power to be fully restored by Monday, February 9, more than two weeks after the widespread outages began.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Background Photo “NES Maintenance” by NES.
