More than 40 ballot measures restricting data centers passed in the midterms, basically across the board. Texas’s new governor campaigned on an immediate pause to data center construction—and data centers are clustered all over that state. That’s what drove Thursday’s tech-stock plunge.
On Friday, White House National Economic Council Director Hassett tried to calm things down, saying projects already on the schedule wouldn’t be affected by the ballot measures. Nvidia took a more practical approach: it teamed up with Apollo to convert existing telecom buildings into data centers across 20 states, sidestepping approval for new construction. Trump simply started calling AI “superintelligence” and said he was 100% behind it. Dozens of local ballot measures say no, the president says it’s “gold,” and the Nasdaq still rose 1% that day. The market believed the White House first, haha.
On Friday, White House National Economic Council Director Hassett tried to calm things down, saying projects already on the schedule wouldn’t be affected by the ballot measures. Nvidia took a more practical approach: it teamed up with Apollo to convert existing telecom buildings into data centers across 20 states, sidestepping approval for new construction. Trump simply started calling AI “superintelligence” and said he was 100% behind it. Dozens of local ballot measures say no, the president says it’s “gold,” and the Nasdaq still rose 1% that day. The market believed the White House first, haha.