A Democratic wave swept through the US election on Tuesday, securing victories in Texas and Congress for candidates who have voiced opposition to the data center industry. The results have prompted some in the technology sector to look toward space for expansion.
Proponents of data centers have stated on social media that they remain optimistic about construction, just not in Texas or on Earth. They now argue it is time to focus on orbital facilities.
Elon Musk has led this push. He has spent more than $400 million of his fortune supporting Republican candidates who lost their midterm races. Musk posted on X in the early hours of Wednesday that data centers in space look appealing now that Democrats have taken the House and Senate.
Jordan Lasker, the operator of the X account “Crémieux,” also weighed in. He is a popular follow in the tech world known for posting race-based pseudoscience. Lasker said data centers in space are an incredible idea and anyone who doubted them did not think enough about the election results.
During the day, Musk employees, tech investors, AI researchers, venture capitalists, and industry fans joined the chorus of support. Soham Mehta, a research fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, argued that underwater data centers should also be considered. In June, China began operating what it claims is the world’s first underwater data center.
Some companies are already trying to put compute in orbit. Google launched a satellite that it says contains a data center class TPU. SpaceX aims to deploy thousands of AI satellites starting as soon as late 2027. Blue Origin has filed for a Federal Communications Commission permit to launch 50,000 satellites that will constitute an orbital data center system.
A few startups aim to build data centers in space. Starcloud claims to have carried the first NVIDIA H100 GPU into orbit in November 2025.
Despite being technically possible, the realities of in-orbit data centers are difficult. Space-based data centers are much more expensive than land-based ones. They cannot grow to hyperscale size and are subject to the risks and whims of satellite launches.
Concerns about Texas data centers are not completely unfounded. Experts tell WIRED that the change in leadership could translate to some concrete changes in the industry, albeit with limits.
Although Democrats control the Texas House, Republicans still control the state’s senate. Robert Paterson, a professor of land use and environmental planning at the University of Texas at Austin, tells WIRED that the split means some immediate attempts at change will probably be stymied a bit.
Adrian Shelley, director of the Texas office for Public Citizen, tells WIRED that the legislature would be a likely place to hash out high-impact policies like the reallocation of state agency resources. He adds that the governor could effect more immediate changes by issuing executive orders or requesting the resignation of politically appointed officials in state agencies.
Shelley says these oversight agencies, such as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Public Utility Commission, and the Texas Water Development Board, have the authority to charge fines for breaking state law or, in extreme cases, to revoke permits for projects like data centers. Paterson notes that Texas developers have particularly strong vested rights, which protects the terms of their projects from the moment their permits are approved, even if construction has not begun yet.
Another medium-term route to reshaping Texas’s data center industry could be giving more power to its counties. Paterson noted that nearly half of the state’s data centers exist in unincorporated territory, which puts them outside the jurisdiction of city zoning laws.
Unlike other states, Paterson says Texas counties have relatively limited enforcement abilities. Under the state’s Dillon’s Rule, counties only have powers that are specifically allotted to them by the state. While they have authority over things like access and egress to county roads or construction on floodplains, they do not have the zoning authority that would help closely regulate projects like data centers.
Paterson says the new attorney general could theoretically adjust the terms in the state’s biannual handbook, which establishes the limits of county authority. He also argues that even in a split legislature, especially since anti-data center sentiment crosses party lines, state lawmakers could propose a viable bill giving counties limited zoning authority over data centers.
Shelley tells WIRED that since data centers were a decisive factor in the blue wave, the upcoming legislative season will be very interesting.
I will say the data center industry has not shown a lot of interest in working with state lawmakers or local leaders, Shelley says. I will be interested to see if that changes.
If not, there is always low-Earth orbit.
What it means
For people making things, the immediate impact is limited. The election results may slow new projects in Texas, but existing permits remain protected. The industry is now pivoting to space, but orbital data centers face high costs and launch risks. No changes are implied for customer products, accounts, privacy or API behaviour.
