What changed?

Transcript

1. The Nasdaq-100 fell 6%.
2. One reported reason: a data-center pause in Texas.
3. But Texas had already ordered a pause.
4. What changed?
5. Thursday was the Nasdaq-100's worst day since March 2020.
6. Chipmakers, memory makers and AI computing companies were among the hardest hit.
7. Reports linked the fall partly to fears of data-center limits in Texas.
8. Other explanations included profit-taking, big funds selling,
9. and doubts about AI spending that started before the election.
10. Texas drew attention for a reason.
11. A tracker by the research firm Cleanview puts
12. nearly a quarter of planned American data-center capacity there.
13. And on Tuesday, Texas elected Gina Hinojosa to replace Governor Greg Abbott.
14. But limits were already in place.
15. By June, the Texas grid operator was tracking about
16. 474 gigawatts of requests to connect large new users,
17. most of them data centers.
18. The grid's record demand is about 91 gigawatts.
19. These are requests, not buildings.
20. Abbott said the state had to check what they would mean for power and water.
21. So in August, after his order,
22. the grid operator stopped approving new data centers
23. and crypto mines of 75 megawatts or more to switch on.
24. In September, Abbott told the state's
25. environmental agency to halt all permits sought by data centers.
26. That permit pause was unevenly applied.
27. Watchdog groups found permit actions still moving.
28. Abbott's office said no permits had been approved.
29. The agency later suspended 17 data-center permits from its automated system,
30. and shut it down.
31. Abbott tied approvals to an audit.
32. The grid operator's reports are due on December 10.
33. He also said he would ask lawmakers to end data-center tax breaks.
34. A Houston energy executive, Chuck Yates,
35. said the expectation had been that Texas would go back to normal after the election.
36. Hinojosa promised a different condition:
37. "a ban on all data center approvals until laws
38. can be passed by the legislature to protect Texans."
39. The industry group the Data Center Coalition says
40. it wants to work with state leaders on responsible growth.
41. She takes office on January 19.
42. Laws need the Legislature,
43. and Republicans are projected to keep the Texas Senate, 19 seats to 12.
44. In an interview, she described her ban as a moratorium on any new permits.
45. What that means for projects that already have permits hasn't been settled.
46. Restrictions on approvals are not new.
47. What the election changed is the promised condition for lifting them:
48. from an audit, to new laws.
49. Whether she delivers, and when approvals resume, is still open.