Texas governor-elect Gina Hinojosa pledges a data-center moratorium as Musk names the third quarter of 2027 for SpaceX's first orbital AI computers

Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated Texas Governor Greg Abbott after campaigning in part on halting new data-center construction. Reuters reported that she is the first Democrat to win the Texas governorship in more than 30 years. Hinojosa has promised an immediate moratorium that lasts until the legislature passes protections, and she has said she would call a special session. Her agenda would require data-center operators to prove that households will not pay more for electricity or water. It would also bar operators from using non-disclosure agreements and give local communities a vote on new projects.

Abbott had already frozen new data-center approvals. He also ordered the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to audit every center waiting for a grid connection. Reuters reports that Abbott never issued a formal moratorium, and DatacenterDynamics describes the measures as a de facto one. ERCOT expects the review to end in December. Morgan Stanley warned that her win raises the risk of project delays and cancellations.

Stocks exposed to Texas power fell after the result. CoreWeave fell about 7 percent, Iren about 6 percent and Oracle 4.3 percent, Reuters reported. Cipher Mining, a Bitcoin miner that hosts compute on the Texas grid, fell 17 percent. Reuters also reported that almost a third of U.S. data-center capacity due online by 2028 is planned for Texas. Democrats who ran on similar pledges also won offices in Georgia.

On November 6, Elon Musk told the Ron Baron investor conference that SpaceX expects to start launching its first StarMind computers, which it co-designed with Nvidia, "probably" in the third quarter of 2027. He added that he was "just guessing." Musk had earlier set a fourth-quarter 2027 target. The AI Post channel relayed his remarks and said larger deployments would follow in 2028 and 2029. Each satellite carries a payload built around a space-optimized Vera Rubin NVL72 system, the rack that pairs 72 Rubin GPUs with 36 Vera CPUs. SpaceX has not disclosed a launch manifest, customers or commercial terms, and the plan depends on Starship.