After Democratic Election Wins, Tech Industry Turns Talk to Data Centers in Space
After US midterm elections in which many Democrats won, including in Texas, parts of the tech industry began promoting data centers in orbit. Experts say Texas's data center regulation could change, but only within limits.
A wave of Democratic candidates won races in the US midterm elections on Tuesday, including in Texas, one of the country's main data center hubs and home to Elon Musk's company SpaceX. Many of the winners had voiced opposition to the data center industry. In the aftermath, some figures in the tech world began saying on social media that data centers should be built not in Texas but in space.
Musk, who put more than $400 million into backing Republican candidates, wrote on X that data centers in space looked appealing after it became clear that Democrats had won both the House and the Senate. Jordan Lasker, the person behind the influential tech-world X account "Crémieux," voiced similar views. Musk's employees, investors and AI researchers also backed the idea.
What is already happening in orbit
Some companies are already trying to put computing power into orbit. Google has launched a satellite that it says carries a "data center class" TPU chip. SpaceX says it aims to deploy thousands of AI satellites starting as early as late 2027. Blue Origin has applied to the Federal Communications Commission, the US telecom regulator, for a permit to launch 50,000 satellites for an orbital data center system. Startup Starcloud claims it carried the first NVIDIA H100 GPU into orbit in November 2025. Orbital data centers are technically possible, but they cost much more than ground-based ones, cannot reach hyperscale size and depend on the risks of satellite launches.
What could change in Texas
Experts say the change in leadership could bring concrete changes, with limits. Democrats control the Texas House, but Republicans retain the state senate, so immediate efforts will probably be slowed, according to Robert Paterson, professor at the University of Texas at Austin. Adrian Shelley, director of the Texas office of consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, says the governor could act faster through executive orders or by asking for the resignation of appointed officials. Developers in Texas also hold strong "vested rights," which protect project terms from the moment permits are approved.
Over the medium term, counties could gain more power: nearly half of the state's data centers sit in unincorporated territory, outside city zoning rules. Paterson says lawmakers could propose a bill granting counties limited zoning authority over data centers. Shelley expects the coming legislative session to be "very interesting."
