Texas Weighs Limits on Fast-Tracked Data Centers
Governors and lawmakers are weighing data center investment against approval speed, with Texas lawmakers set to reconvene in January 2027.
Updated on Nov. 5, 2026 in Data Centers
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Meta President Dina Powell McCormick said a newly elected governor asked to meet about keeping the company's data center investments in their state. The request was disclosed in a Wall Street Journal interview, and she declined to name the governor. Meta's data center developments are operating or under construction, so the report describes existing investment rather than a new product.
Why it matters
Data centers are becoming a state-level political issue as governors weigh job creation against the strain these facilities place on local resources. Powell McCormick said the tech industry has not done a good job explaining the benefits of these investments to states, which signals that siting decisions are increasingly contested.
Texas ranks second nationally in total data centers, behind Virginia, with 300 currently operating out of more than 500 facilities or projects. Meta's El Paso campus carries a $10 billion investment, while its Temple facility has been operational since July. The figures come from company statements and the reporting itself, and the disclosed numbers do not specify power capacity or energy use.
The players
Meta
Meta operates a global social and advertising platform and builds large-scale data center infrastructure to support its AI and cloud workloads across 23 states.
Dina Powell McCormick
Powell McCormick is president of Meta, overseeing the company's external and government-facing strategy as it expands its data center footprint.
Gina Hinojosa
Hinojosa is a Texas Democrat who has called for a statewide moratorium on fast-tracked data center approvals in the state.
Greg Abbott
Abbott is the outgoing governor of Texas, whom Hinojosa has urged to implement a moratorium on new fast-tracked data center construction approvals.
The details
Data centers are large facilities that house the servers powering cloud services, AI training, and online platforms, and their siting depends on land, power, water, and tax terms negotiated with state and local officials. A governor's leverage comes from those terms, while the company's leverage comes from the capital and jobs it can place in one state rather than another. Powell McCormick described the governor-elect's motive as keeping investment in their town so jobs do not go elsewhere. Meta's existing footprint in Texas includes El Paso, Temple, and Fort Worth.
Timeline
Wednesday (November 2026): Powell McCormick spoke with the Wall Street Journal at a technology conference.
July 2026: Meta's Temple data center went operational.
Jan. 12, 2027: Texas state lawmakers are set to reconvene.
The Tech Race
Virginia holds the most data centers nationally, and Texas ranks second, so the competition for new facilities is now partly a contest among states for investment and jobs. Governors in Ohio and Georgia have also recently won offices in races that featured data centers, indicating the issue is spreading beyond Texas.
Residents in states hosting large data center campuses may see changes in local jobs, tax revenue, and utility demand as these projects expand. Any new restrictions on fast-tracked approvals would affect how quickly future facilities can be built in those states.
The takeaway
States are now weighing data center investment against approval speed and local impact, and the next concrete checkpoint is the Texas legislature's Jan. 12, 2027 reconvening. Watch whether any moratorium or restriction proposal is filed on that date.
What happens next
Texas state lawmakers are set to reconvene on Jan. 12, 2027, when proposals to restrict data center approvals could be taken up.
Further reading
For context on how these facilities are reshaping state economies, see more coverage of Data Centers.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Washington Examiner.
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