The governor-elect of Texas Gina Hinojosa made it clear on the campaign trail that she would work to rein in data centers and billionaire tech barons. And now that she’s headed into office, that means playing hardball with SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
“We can have a strong working relationship with Elon Musk and his companies, but it has to be on our terms,” Hinojosa said Thursday in an interview with CNN, as quoted by Bloomberg. “It cannot be just running over the people of Texas, and that’s what changes now that I will be governor.”
A central part of Hinojosa’s campaign was demanding an immediate moratorium on new data center construction until lawmakers have established tighter regulations and stronger protections for local communities.
In the Thursday interview, Hinojosa reiterated her commitment to placing more stringent regulations on data centers by saying she would “balance” it with keeping Texas a business-friendly state.
She also shared that she’s already making moves to crack down on Musk. Amid speculation that Texas officials have been considering a sale of state park land to SpaceX, Hinojosa said she spoke to the head of the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department to “request that no action be taken,” per Bloomberg.
“It is such an important resource,” she told reporters in Austin, hours before the CNN interview.
Wall Street and the AI industry are watching Hinojosa closely, as Texas has become the nucleus of the data center boom. Over a quarter of the US’s planned data center capacity resides in the state.
Musk is deeply invested in the state, having relocated his companies SpaceX and Tesla there from California. He’s also reportedly exploring sites to build another large data center in Texas, to add to the controversial “Colossus” facilities he operates in Greater Memphis. That’s not to mention the quarter of a billion dollars he poured into the midterms to support Republican candidates.
Of course, Musk could simply do what many think is impossible — or at least economically infeasible — and ditch terrestrial AI instrastructure altogether.
“Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now,” Musk wrote on X, following the brutal election loss.
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