Texas election shifts could reshape AI data center expansion
MIT Technology Review reports that Texas Democrats’ electoral gains could lead to delays or a moratorium on data center projects, following Greg Abbott’s September 21 order halting permits. Major AI infrastructure plans include Stargate Frontier, a 1,820-megawatt project, and the 6,400-megawatt Nexus Hubbard, but local authorities, state offices, construction unions, and lenders may shape the final outcome.
Potential restrictions affect several major AI data center projects in the fastest-growing US data center market, although the report says no single office controls every project and the policy outcome remains uncertain.
Texas is the fastest-growing data center market in the US and ground zero for Big Tech’s largest AI buildouts. But the blue wave that swept the Lone Star State may jeopardize that position.
Democrat James Talarico won the US Senate seat against Ken Paxton. Gina Hinojosa won the race for governor against the Republican incumbent, Greg Abbott. At the state level, Democrats will take control of the Texas House for the first time in 24 years. Talarico and Hinojosa made data centers a central issue, discussing them constantly on the campaign trail.
Even before the polls closed, insiders in the data center industry noticed that the times were changing. At the industry’s DCD conference in Ashburn, Virginia, on Tuesday, panelists lamented that Texas had been the easiest place to build for years—until September. That’s when Abbott, perhaps seeing the increasingly bipartisan distaste for these facilities, began changing course himself.
Developers said the governor’s office had stopped responding to their emails. On September 21, Abbott directed a key state regulator to halt data center permits. Many panelists at the conference were expecting this to mean that existing projects might be slowed and new ones could be halted altogether.
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