The Information's TITV
00:23:52 · Shane Burke, Akash Pasricha, Leo Schwartz
[00:23:52] S3: Hey Akash, thanks for having me. [00:23:54] S0: Leo, I want to start with you. Let's talk about the data center build out. Which senate races specifically are you watching tonight with respect to that? [00:24:06] S4: I'm gonna be a boring politics reporter and say, unfortunately, I don't think anything's really going to change that much based on tonight's results, especially in federal senate races. That being said, as you said, it has been a major theme in races. I think probably the most emblematic one of that has been in Ohio with John Husted and Sherrod Brown, a former senator, where Sherrod Brown has been accusing his opponent of being the face of data centers. Although at the same time, what you see in a lot of these races is that when it comes down to brass tacks, the views aren't actually that different. I think every candidate realizes that data centers and AI more broadly has been largely unpopular with voters and have taken sort of similar policy approaches to it. I mean, John Husted even was trying to advance rate payer protection legislation in the Senate. So even though it has been a big point of rhetoric, whether it will actually lead to different policy changes based on who gets elected is pretty unlikely, I think.
00:24:06 · Leo Schwartz, Akash Pasricha
[00:24:06] S4: I'm gonna be a boring politics reporter and say, unfortunately, I don't think anything's really going to change that much based on tonight's results, especially in federal senate races. That being said, as you said, it has been a major theme in races. I think probably the most emblematic one of that has been in Ohio with John Husted and Sherrod Brown, a former senator, where Sherrod Brown has been accusing his opponent of being the face of data centers. Although at the same time, what you see in a lot of these races is that when it comes down to brass tacks, the views aren't actually that different. I think every candidate realizes that data centers and AI more broadly has been largely unpopular with voters and have taken sort of similar policy approaches to it. I mean, John Husted even was trying to advance rate payer protection legislation in the Senate. So even though it has been a big point of rhetoric, whether it will actually lead to different policy changes based on who gets elected is pretty unlikely, I think. [00:25:07] S0: So the... Well, let's go to the governor races then, Shane. I mean, is this is kind of the ones that I think are more interesting. You did some great reporting on this and and some number crunching in a piece that we will link in the show notes. Which governor races specifically should we be paying attention to from your perspective?
00:25:07 · Akash Pasricha, Shane Burke
[00:25:07] S0: So the... Well, let's go to the governor races then, Shane. I mean, is this is kind of the ones that I think are more interesting. You did some great reporting on this and and some number crunching in a piece that we will link in the show notes. Which governor races specifically should we be paying attention to from your perspective? [00:25:26] S3: Yeah. So the governor's races are interesting to look at because it has been governors who have been able to enact moratoriums or pauses on larger scales. I'd say the three races I'm most interested in looking at right now, Georgia is really close, and there's a candidate. The Democrat, wants to put a more joy on data centers, and the Republican is much more, like, free with regulation and stuff. So I think that is a close one that could have a lot of differences. Texas, there's a kind of similar story, although Abbott, the incumbent, has put a pause on data centers. The... His opponent wants, stricter controls. And then, the third one, I find Alaska's race really interesting. There are four candidates. Like, the the Democrat is, maybe going to pull off, like, an upset or change, like, the way it's been. And that also is a data center moratorium versus not a candidate situation. And I think Alaska could be an interesting market in the future for data centers. They've got a lot of land and a lot of cooling.
00:25:26 · Shane Burke, Akash Pasricha
[00:25:26] S3: Yeah. So the governor's races are interesting to look at because it has been governors who have been able to enact moratoriums or pauses on larger scales. I'd say the three races I'm most interested in looking at right now, Georgia is really close, and there's a candidate. The Democrat, wants to put a more joy on data centers, and the Republican is much more, like, free with regulation and stuff. So I think that is a close one that could have a lot of differences. Texas, there's a kind of similar story, although Abbott, the incumbent, has put a pause on data centers. The... His opponent wants, stricter controls. And then, the third one, I find Alaska's race really interesting. There are four candidates. Like, the the Democrat is, maybe going to pull off, like, an upset or change, like, the way it's been. And that also is a data center moratorium versus not a candidate situation. And I think Alaska could be an interesting market in the future for data centers. They've got a lot of land and a lot of cooling. [00:26:37] S0: I was gonna say, yeah, it makes the makes the cooling issue a little bit easier if you're building it up there. Although the Alaska results, I think those are the ones that'll that'll take longest to to come in from from what I was tracking this morning. [00:26:48] S3: Yeah. They've also got a ranked voting system. It's interesting. Different. Yeah.
00:26:48 · Shane Burke, Akash Pasricha, Leo Schwartz
[00:26:48] S3: Yeah. They've also got a ranked voting system. It's interesting. Different. Yeah. [00:26:55] S0: Leo, what about some of these... I mean, you talked about the Senate race in Ohio just now. What about the governor race in Ohio? And some of the other data center hotspots, Virginia is another one. I wonder if that's one that we should be paying attention to or if it's kind of spoken for. I mean, Texas is certainly Shane alluded to it, but what about the other ones? [00:27:19] S4: Yeah, mean, would just say, as Shane has done some really great reporting on this, a lot of the battles over data center has happened not only at the state, but at the local level. And there are states like New Mexico, Virginia, where this has been such a battleground that I do think that's more interesting to watch. At the federal level, really... I mean, A, the chance of real legislation passing is always incredibly slim, but there also aren't necessarily that strong of policy differences between the right and the left, at least in the Senate and the House on this issue. A lot of the support has actually come from the Trump administration, and you continue to see policy coming out of the Trump administration incentivizing data center build outs. So if there is strong pushback, what we're seeing is that that's more at the state level.
00:27:19 · Leo Schwartz, Akash Pasricha
[00:27:19] S4: Yeah, mean, would just say, as Shane has done some really great reporting on this, a lot of the battles over data center has happened not only at the state, but at the local level. And there are states like New Mexico, Virginia, where this has been such a battleground that I do think that's more interesting to watch. At the federal level, really... I mean, A, the chance of real legislation passing is always incredibly slim, but there also aren't necessarily that strong of policy differences between the right and the left, at least in the Senate and the House on this issue. A lot of the support has actually come from the Trump administration, and you continue to see policy coming out of the Trump administration incentivizing data center build outs. So if there is strong pushback, what we're seeing is that that's more at the state level. [00:28:06] S0: Shane, one of the things that you called out in your story on Sunday was the idea that moratoriums and pauses are one axis to look at these candidates at. There's also stuff like how they're looking at water, how they're looking at tax breaks. What are the different vectors on which these candidates have been running their platforms? Because some of them have more nuanced takes on whether or not there should be a moratorium, whether or not we should, you know, conserve the water use and stuff like that.