Top Texas GOP official rallies around Trump's AI, crypto plans amid state's crucial investments
One of the top officials in Texas says he is on board with President Donald Trump‘s aggressive plan to expand the AI and crypto capabilities of the United States.
“There’s no daylight between President Trump and I on this issue,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Fox News Digital this week. “
“I totally support the president and his Stargate Plan. We are completely aligned in our desire to see Texas and America lead in AI, data centers and crypto. These industries understand they will have to supply their own power needs and are diligently working toward that goal so costs are not disproportionally shifted onto residential and small businesses customers.”
Patrick, long considered a loyal ally of Trump, raised eyebrows last year when he warned of the burden that crypto mining and data centers could put on the state’s electrical grid. However, he repeatedly emphasized that there is “no daylight” between him and Trump on these issues.
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“We need to take a close look at those two industries,” Patrick posted on X in June 2024 while expressing concerns that data centers and crypto mining expansion add more to the grid than they pay off in jobs.
“They produce very few jobs compared to the incredible demands they place on our grid. Crypto mining may actually make more money selling electricity back to the grid than from their crypto mining operations… Texans will ultimately pay the price. I’m more interested in building the grid to service customers in their homes, apartments, and normal businesses and keeping costs as low as possible for them instead of for very niche industries that have massive power demands and produce few jobs.”
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Crypto mining and data center expansion have been dominant themes of the Presidential Transition’s economic messaging, including earlier this month when Trump announced a new $20 billion foreign investment for the expansion of data centers across several U.S. states, including Texas. The announcement drew praise from many conservatives, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
Trump has also garnered significant support from the crypto community and raised large chunks of money from the industry along with his promotion of a message emphasizing energy independence, economic growth and framing the expansion of crypto mining as an essential tool toward ensuring the U.S. leads the industry.
“The need to quickly scale data center capacity to support the 21st-century economy continues to increase, given the growing demand for AI and other digital services by individuals, households, businesses, government, and organizations of all sizes,” Dan Diorio, senior director of state policy at the Data Center Coalition, told Fox News Digital.
“The data center industry appreciates President Trump highlighting the essential role of the data center industry in advancing America’s national security and global economic competitiveness. We also appreciate his commitment to promoting the rapid development of additional data center and energy capacity to support the nation’s leadership in AI,” Diorio continued. “Texas is uniquely poised to benefit from this. With continued support for data centers, Texas can continue to drive innovation and investment while promoting American economic leadership and national security today and into the future.”
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Last week, Trump announced Stargate, a joint venture of OpenAI, SoftBank and Oracle that will invest up to $500 billion in AI-related infrastructure.
Texas will serve as ground zero, with 10 data centers by the venture already under construction in the state, 10 more on the way and the first project based in Abilene, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison said. Each building will occupy half a million square feet.
Patrick said in a statement last week to The Texas Tribune that he believes Texas should be the “world leader in AI, data center and crypto. The key is to ensure they have the power they need without a major impact to our electrical grid. The industries understand that and they are working on solutions.”
Texas’ main grid operator predicts power demand will nearly double by 2030, in part due to more requests to plug into the grid from large users like data centers, crypto mining facilities, hydrogen production plants, and oil and gas companies.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.