As the bipartisan hate for data centers continues to grow, Texas governor Greg Abbott is suddenly singing a dramatically different tune.
During a Sunday interview with ABC, Abbott said that AI companies have “basically dug their own grave for the problem that’s been caused for them, and that’s why they got the backlash they deserve.”
His comments indicate that it’s not just blue states growing wary of data centers. It’s a particularly noteworthy new take for Abbott, who mere months ago was an outspoken supporter of the massive facilities powering the AI boom. Just in November, he gloated that Texas was the “epicenter of AI development,” offering major sales tax exemptions. At the time, Abbott proudly announced that Google was making a major $40 billion investment in the state.
The backlash has become one of the biggest uniting, bipartisan movements in the country, turning vast swathes of the population firmly against the tech. Lawmakers are only now starting to catch on that the subject could quickly turn into a major political crisis, which could have significant consequences not just during the upcoming midterms, but 2028’s presidential election as well.
The sheer level of opposition is finally dawning on Abbott.
“They pop up in places that nobody ever heard of before, until they started the construction,” Abbott told ABC. “And so, they had not been working in collaboration with the state, they’d not been in collaboration with local governments.”
Abbott instituted a moratorium on any new data center projects earlier this month, citing concerns over placing additional strains on Texas’ power grid. The state is being inundated with hundreds of new AI data center projects which could risk its already precarious grid collapsing in on itself.
During his interview, Abbott alluded to what may have driven the population against data centers.
“One thing is the rapidity that these data centers are coming online, that people didn’t see coming,” he told ABC. “The other is the way that the data centers, they didn’t do their job to get the support of people in local communities.”
“Gaining the support of people in local communities is essential,” he added, warning any future operators that they will “have to first get the approval of those in local communities” before being able to “operate in Texas.”
But getting said approval is far easier said than done. A recent Pew Research Center poll found that a staggering 52 percent of Americans are now “more concerned than excited about the increased use of AI in daily life,” up from just 37 percent in 2021.
More on data centers: Leaked Memo Shows Republicans Are Terrified of the Backlash Against AI Data Centers