A wave of Democratic candidates swept to victory in Tuesday’s elections, including key races in Texas, a national hotspot for data center development. The results have triggered a reaction within the technology sector, with some industry figures looking beyond Earth for solutions to potential regulatory headwinds.
Elon Musk, who contributed more than $400 million to Republican candidates who ultimately lost their midterm races, was among the first to voice the new sentiment. In the early hours of Wednesday, after it became clear that Democrats had taken control of both the House and Senate, Musk posted on X that data centers in space were looking “pretty appealing right now.”
Musk was not alone in this pivot. Jordan Lasker, the operator of the X account “Crémieux,” which is known for posting race-based pseudoscience, weighed in on the election results. Lasker stated that data centers in space are an “incredible idea” and argued that anyone who doubted the concept failed to consider the implications of the night’s political outcomes.
Orbital and Underwater Alternatives
The chorus of support for off-world infrastructure quickly expanded to include Musk employees, tech investors, AI researchers, and venture capitalists. Soham Mehta, a research fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, a techno-optimist think tank, broadened the scope of the proposal. Mehta argued that underwater data centers should also be considered as a viable alternative to traditional land-based facilities.
China already has a foothold in this niche, having begun operations in June of what it claims is the world’s first underwater data center. Meanwhile, several major technology companies and startups are actively pursuing orbital compute capabilities.
Google has launched a satellite it describes as containing “data center class TPU” chips. SpaceX has stated its aim 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 intended to form an “orbital data center system.” Additionally, the startup Starcloud claims to have carried “the first Nvidia H100 GPU into orbit” in November 2025.
Texas Regulatory Landscape
The push for space-based infrastructure comes amid concerns about the future of data center development in Texas. Experts note that the change in political leadership could lead to concrete changes in the industry, although the impact may be limited by the state’s divided government.
While Democrats now control the Texas House of Representatives, Republicans retain control of the state Senate. Robert Paterson, a professor of land use and environmental planning at the University of Texas at Austin, told WIRED that this split means immediate attempts at regulatory change “will probably be stymied a bit.”
Adrian Shelley, director of the Texas office for the nonprofit consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, identified the legislature as a likely venue for hashing out high-impact policies, such as the reallocation of state agency resources. Shelley added that the governor could effect more immediate changes through executive orders or by requesting the resignation of politically appointed officials in state agencies.
Shelley noted that oversight agencies, including 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 data center projects. However, Paterson pointed out that Texas developers possess strong “vested rights,” which protect the terms of their projects from the moment permits are approved, even if construction has not yet begun.
Another potential avenue for reshaping the industry involves granting more power to counties. Paterson noted that nearly half of Texas’s data centers exist in unincorporated territory, placing them outside city zoning laws. Under Texas’s Dillon’s Rule, counties only have powers specifically allotted by the state, limiting their ability to closely regulate data centers. Paterson suggested that state lawmakers could propose a bill giving counties “limited zoning authority over data centers,” a move that could be viable given the anti-data-center sentiment that crosses party lines.
Shelley remarked that since “data centers were a decisive factor in this blue wave,” the upcoming legislative season will be “very interesting.” He observed that the data center industry has not shown a lot of interest in working with state lawmakers or local leaders, and he expressed interest in seeing if that dynamic changes in the new political climate.
Source: Wired
