President Donald Trump weighed in on the data center debate this week: “I saw Texas the other day is sort of against data centers,” he said. “I think it’s a mistake.”
Mark Schiefelbein/Associated Press
President Donald Trump has entered the Texas data center debate.
In the same week that Gov. Greg Abbott called for state regulators to conduct a sweeping audit of data centers wanting to connect to Texas’ power grid — effectively putting those projects on hold — Trump called Texas’ opposition to data centers a mistake.
In a wide-ranging video interview published Friday, Trump discussed data centers and artificial intelligence on a national level but nodded to the drama playing out in communities across the Lone Star State.
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“What is going to be the political impact of data centers?” Punchbowl News journalist Jake Sherman asked. “I know you’ve taken action. Congress is going to try to take action. It’s going to be in the next 10 years, a big political issue.”
Trump began his answer focusing on artificial intelligence, saying “whoever wins AI just wins,” then turned to Texas.
“I saw Texas the other day is sort of against data centers,” Trump said. “I think it’s a mistake.”
A construction crew works on cable buses for a new DataBank campus in Red Oak in May.
Angela Piazza/The Dallas Morning News
Trump said he wasn’t taking a position, clarifying: “I just think it’s a mistake because there are communities that want it. When a community wants it, it means a lot of money is going to come into that community.”
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He said data centers are “tremendously important” for economics even comparing it to the state’s massive oil and gas industry.
“For Texas to say no to data centers is a mistake in the sense that it could be bigger than oil,” Trump said. “Data centers could be bigger than oil.”
Andrew Mahaleris, Abbott’s press secretary, wrote in an emailed statement that the governor’s top priority is to protect Texan’s safety and quality of life and ensure the integrity of the state’s power grid and water supply.
Mahaleris wrote ERCOT, the state’s power grid operator, is tracking amore than 500% increase in peak electricity demand, and the unprecedented demand could endanger the reliability and stability of the grid. He also noted that Texas lawmakers required data centers to report their power and water usage, but said less than 10% of those developments were in compliance.
“The Governor’s pause requires data centers to provide PUCT and ERCOT with the required information for them to make fully informed decisions,” the statement reads. “Simply put, Texans must come first.”
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More broadly, Trump said some of the data centers he’s seen are the “most incredible buildings” rather than unsightly, and he touted how data centers are now generating their own electricity on site.
“Now, when they build a plant, they’re becoming like a utility, a public utility,” Trump said. “A big portion of the building is now their own generator. We’re not taking that from the public. We’re not taking that from the grid. Then, at a very cheap price and maybe for nothing, they’re taking their excess electricity, which will be a lot, and they’re putting it back into the grid.”
Texas has had a wave of data center growth in recent years because of its abundance of land, relatively cheap and available power, and its business-friendly regulation environment. Dallas-Fort Worth was recently ranked the No. 1 primary data center market, according to real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield.
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People demonstrated against data centers before a City Council meeting in Red Oak in May.
Angela Piazza/The Dallas Morning News
Data center developments hit a hurdle of community backlash in recent months, though. Grassroots efforts across the state gaining traction as residents raise concerns about the impacts massive facilities will have on their health and where they live. Though data center facilities are improving their technology, worries linger about how much water and electricity they require to operate.
The uproar has prompted some local officials to contemplate data center moratoriums while others tout the economic benefits such projects can create.
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This reporting is part of the Future of North Texas, a community-funded journalism initiative supported by the Commit Partnership, Communities Foundation of Texas, The Dallas Foundation, the Dallas Mavericks, the Dallas Regional Chamber, Deedie Rose, Lisa and Charles Siegel, the McCune-Losinger Family Fund, The Meadows Foundation, the Perot Foundation, the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the University of Texas at Dallas. The News retains full editorial control of this coverage.