After Democratic Wins in Texas, Musk and Tech Backers Talk Up Data Centres in Space

"Data centers in space looking pretty appealing right now," Musk wrote on X early on Wednesday, once it was clear that Democrats had won the House and Senate. Wired reported that he had put more than $400 million into backing Republican candidates, all of whom lost. Investors, AI researchers and SpaceX employees took up the same theme online over the day, and a fellow at the Foundation for American Innovation, a think tank, suggested underwater data centres as well.

The posts are mostly a reaction to the results, but the concern behind them is real. Texas is where much of the US AI build-out is being planned, and it is also home to SpaceX. Data centre opposition played a part in the Democratic wins there, and experts told Wired that the change in power could alter how projects in the state are approved and policed.

Regulating the industry will not be simple. Democrats now control the Texas House, but Republicans still hold the state Senate. Robert Paterson, a professor of land use and environmental planning at the University of Texas at Austin, told Wired that the split means some early attempts at change "will probably be stymied a bit". He also said Texas developers have strong "vested rights", which fix the terms of a project once its permit is approved, even if building has not started.

The governor's office may be able to act faster than the legislature. Adrian Shelley, who heads Public Citizen's Texas office, said a governor could issue executive orders or ask politically appointed officials at state agencies to resign. Agencies such as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the Public Utility Commission and the Texas Water Development Board can fine companies for breaking state law and, in extreme cases, revoke permits.

County powers could also matter. Paterson said nearly half of Texas data centres are on unincorporated land, outside city zoning rules, and that the state's counties can only use powers the state specifically gives them. He argued that because opposition to data centres crosses party lines, even a divided legislature could pass a bill giving counties "limited zoning authority over data centers".

Several companies are already working on computing in orbit. Google has launched a satellite that it says carries "data center class TPU" chips. SpaceX says it aims to deploy "thousands of AI satellites starting as soon as late 2027". Blue Origin has applied to the Federal Communications Commission to launch 50,000 satellites for what it calls an "orbital data center system". The start-up Starcloud says it took the first Nvidia H100 GPU into orbit in November 2025.

The obstacles are large. Space-based data centres cost far more than those on the ground, cannot reach hyperscale size and depend on the timing and risks of rocket launches. For now, the decisions that count will be made on the ground, in Texas's next legislative session. Shelley said the data centre industry "hasn't shown a lot of interest in working with state lawmakers or local leaders" and that he would watch whether that changes.