Photo: Joel Angel Juarez/Reuters
Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa said Thursday that the state needs new laws on data centers and should stop building them until those laws exist, the same day the Nasdaq fell on fears that Democratic wins could bring moratoriums on the AI buildout, ZeroHedge reports.
“We will have laws to protect Texans, and we need to stop what we are doing with data centers until we have those protections,” the Democrat told CNN’s Jake Tapper, in an interview first reported by The Epoch Times.
Tapper told Hinojosa that AI investors were said to be worried about her victory given her promise of a temporary data center moratorium, and noted that CNN’s voter polls showed Texans opposed building data centers in their communities, 75 percent to 25 percent. Hinojosa said Texas has always been pro-business, adding, “Data centers have moved into mostly rural communities, and there are no rules and laws to protect Texans.” She said communities need “a seat at the table” to decide whether and how data centers come in. “It is not that I hate data centers. I hate the way they are taking advantage of Texas,” she said.
The White House signaled a different approach. On Friday, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told CNBC there is “plenty of room for data center growth to continue,” according to a post by Walter Bloomberg.
The administration has treated data centers as a national priority. According to The Epoch Times, President Trump said in his State of the Union that tech companies had agreed to pay a greater share of data centers’ utility costs, and on Oct. 21 he suggested developers pay communities a “dividend” to make the projects popular.
Hinojosa defeated Republican incumbent Greg Abbott on Tuesday after promising a moratorium on new data centers during the campaign. Abbott had ordered the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on Sept. 21 to halt data center permits until the state’s grid operator finishes an audit, though a public radio report found the agency kept issuing some permits afterward. Hinojosa is set to be sworn in Jan. 19, 2027.
According to ZeroHedge, the Nasdaq fell more than 5 percent by midday Thursday and a Morgan Stanley index of neocloud stocks dropped 12 percent. Goldman Sachs estimated that states likely to restrict data centers hold about 45 percent of planned U.S. capacity, with Texas alone accounting for about 25 percent.
