| Α nеw Ukraіnіan ѕtrіkе іѕ makіng hеadⅼіnеѕ. |  | Τhе pυᖯⅼіϲ ѕtοry іѕ aᖯουt drοnеѕ, targеtѕ, and damagе. Βυt ᖯυrіеd ᖯеnеath thе ϲοvеragе іѕ a mυϲh qυіеtеr ѕtοry. 𝖶е ѕtυmᖯⅼеd aϲrοѕѕ еvіdеnϲе ѕυggеѕtіng thе rеaⅼ advantagе may havе ϲοmе frοm tеϲhnοⅼοgy qυіеtⅼy ѕυppⅼіеd ᖯy thе Unіtеd Ѕtatеѕ. Ιt іѕ rarеⅼy dіѕϲυѕѕеd pυᖯⅼіϲⅼy. Βυt οnϲе yου ѕее what іt dοеѕ, thе ѕυϲϲеѕѕ οf thе ѕtrіkе ᖯеgіnѕ tο makе mυϲh mοrе ѕеnѕе. Сⅼіϲk hеrе tο ⅼеarn mοrе | | | |
|
|
Texas wanted to be the world's largest data center market. Now it's frozen. | AI Policy / Election Risk |
| | Texas Just Froze All New Data Center Permits. Nearly 50 Gigawatts of US AI Capacity Is Now on Hold. | Texas Governor Greg Abbott directed the state's environmental regulator on September 21 to halt all new data-center permits until grid and water audits are complete, expanding an August moratorium on new grid connections into a full statewide construction freeze. Texas had been on pace to overtake Virginia as the world's largest data-center market by the end of the decade. BloombergNEF estimates the freeze puts nearly 50 gigawatts of proposed capacity — roughly 20% of the entire US data-center pipeline — into limbo, affecting projects including OpenAI's own Stargate campus in Abilene.
The freeze is explicit election-year politics. Abbott is running a tight reelection race against state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, and an August NBC News poll found 64% of Americans would be less likely to vote for a candidate who "supports building local data centers." Abbott has had to walk back his own 2025 claim that Texas would be the epicenter of American AI development. Hinojosa argues the timing is designed to lift the freeze the day after the election: "That only is an attempt to protect his reelection chances, not the people of Texas," she told CBS News.
The move goes further than anything this newsletter has tracked in the broader backlash so far. The House's Ratepayer Protection Act asked data centers to cover their own grid costs; Texas is refusing to let new ones build at all until audits finish, and new permits are blocked regardless of whether a project has already secured a power agreement. That a state actively courting the industry with tax incentives and a marquee OpenAI campus is now the site of its most severe rollback yet says as much about the depth of the backlash as any national poll number does. | | "That only is an attempt to protect his reelection chances, not the people of Texas." — Gina Hinojosa, Abbott's opponent | | | | Whether the freeze lifts the day after the election, as Hinojosa predicts, or holds into next year regardless of who wins, is now a genuine variable in roughly a fifth of the country's AI buildout — a level of concrete policy risk no essay about pacing the frontier has come close to matching. | | Sources: CNBC, Bloomberg, The Dallas Morning News · Sep 21–22, 2026 | | | |
|
|
|
