Texas freezes data center permits as queue balloons from 63 GW to 474 GW in 18 months
elonmusk · x · 2026-10-09
An a16z analysis explains why Texas has frozen new data center grid permits:
- The interconnection queue ballooned from 63 GW to 474 GW in 18 months—over 5x the state's record peak demand
- Only 9.5 GW has been approved and roughly 4.3 GW is actually running
- The rest is duplicates, speculation, and developers who have never plugged in a GPU
The retweeter adds perspective: the entire U.S. averages about 500 GW of demand, underscoring how inflated the queue is. The argument: the grid can't build for that many "maybes," so tighter permitting is inevitable.
Related event: Texas Freezes Data Center Approvals as Grid Queue Swells to 474GW(3 posts)→
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