Did the Election Just Stall the AI Build-Out?

Key takeaways

Data-center moratorium pledges in Texas, Georgia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania could delay or cancel AI infrastructure, with Texas alone exposing about 13 gigawatts of planned capacity.
Political and permitting constraints may hurt neoclouds and Nvidia in the short term while strengthening hyperscalers and increasing the value of efficient chips.
Apple’s Siri AI developer framework enables third-party apps to expose content and coordinate multi-step actions through Siri.
Google’s K–12 AI opt-out will be paired with loss of Google Search for schools that ban AI entirely, creating an antitrust and education-policy dispute.
Revolut found that self-hosting open GLM models, making tokens inexpensive, and optimizing serving reduced coding costs by about 90% and improved development speed.

Summary

Election victories put major data-center plans at risk

Brian said Democrats won Texas, Georgia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania after campaigning on data-center pauses or restrictions, exposing roughly 50% of proposed U.S. AI capacity to greater scrutiny. Voters in more than 29 jurisdictions passed restrictions, while S&P counted over 145 delayed or canceled projects. Gina Hinojosa’s Texas win could affect about 13 gigawatts of capacity; projects with power permits and steel may continue, those lacking environmental permits could slip 12–18 months, and others may move to Louisiana, Oklahoma, or nowhere. Georgia has nearly 2.9 gigawatts under construction, and Ohio’s Amy Acton promised freezes tied to energy and water standards.

Why the data-center fight reshapes AI companies and Nvidia

The host said Texas supplies nearly 30% of U.S. data-center capacity expected online in 2028, so even a short delay could change national AI-buildout numbers. Ben Thompson’s analysis described a split: already-permitted neocloud facilities become more valuable, but smaller neoclouds face both tighter financing and harder permitting, while hyperscalers can reuse existing sites and potentially gain share. Nvidia may lose near-term chip sales as projects disappear, especially because neoclouds use its full-rack systems, yet constrained power makes Nvidia’s tokens-per-megawatt advantage more valuable and may let hyperscalers moderate spending under the cover of political opposition.

Apple lets every developer add AI actions to Siri

Apple opened Siri AI integrations to third-party developers in the iOS 27.3 and related operating-system betas through App Intents and new “app skills.” Developers can teach Siri complicated, multi-step workflows: for example, Siri could find a user’s favorite sneakers, identify the user’s partner in Contacts, and send the sneaker information through a messaging app. Users often will not need to name the app; an active rideshare Live Activity can tell Siri which app should change a ride’s destination. Apple is also using the framework across its own apps.

Google will make school AI opt-in—but tie it to Search

Google said AI tools for K–12 students will be off by default in 2027, responding to educators and parents seeking more control, but schools that block AI entirely will also lose Google Search because “Search and AI are deeply integrated.” Former FTC chair Lina Khan called that coercive use of Google’s search position. Google has promoted Gemini for lesson planning and tutoring, including a Guided Learning feature intended to encourage productive struggle and reduce cheating. The policy reverses an August default-on change after school leaders objected; New York and Los Angeles schools have broadly restricted generative AI.

Revolut cut coding costs by self-hosting GLM

Revolut said self-hosted GLM models reduced AI coding-inference costs by about 90% while giving roughly 2,000 engineers a 60% improvement in coding time and 70% improvement in lead time. The company moved from Gemini and Claude Code to GLM, serving GLM 5.3 on 56 Nvidia B200 GPUs at about $0.30 per million input/output tokens—roughly one-tenth the commercial-tool cost. The biggest gains came from using unlimited tokens for debugging and Jira or Confluence work, plus quantization and serving optimizations. Infrastructure lead David Abbott-Bow said a million-token context is unnecessary: 256,000 tokens delivered the practical sweet spot.

Show notes

Democrats swept Texas, Georgia and Ohio governorships on data center moratorium pledges, putting AI buildout billions at risk. Apple opened Siri AI to every developer, Google said it would turn K-12 AI off by default, and Revolut cut coding costs 90%.

Democratic gubernatorial wins from Texas and Georgia to Ohio and Pennsylvania are set to expose 50% of AI data center proposals to more scrutiny and pushback (Bloomberg)

Democratic gubernatorial candidates who pledged to halt data center development swept Texas, Georgia and Ohio, threatening billions in planned AI investment and rebuking Trump’s endorsement of the AI building spree (Financial Times)

The Texas results could be awkward for Elon Musk, who reportedly gave nearly $450 million to Republican midterm candidates and has bet big on the state with SpaceX, Tesla and the planned Terafab chip complex (The Information)

Apple opens Siri AI to all developers, letting any app on iOS 27.3 beta and other 27.3 OS betas bring its content and actions into Siri AI by using App Intents (Apple Developer)

Apple’s new “app skills” let any app build Siri AI integrations for the first time, and teach Siri to coordinate complicated multi-step actions, testable now in the iOS 27.3 betas (9to5Mac)

Google says AI tools for K-12 students will be off by default in 2027; schools that block AI entirely will lose Search, as “Search and AI are deeply integrated” (The New York Times)

Revolut says it cut AI coding inference costs by ~90% in less than a year by making self-hosted GLM models its default over commercial tools like Claude Code (The Register)

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