Texas is uniquely positioned to lead in the global race for AI leadership

By James Dickey · April 20, 2026

More than 70 percent of America's transmission lines are over 25 years old. We're asking infrastructure built during the Clinton administration to power the most important technology race of the century, and right now, we don't have the grid to back it up.

The U.S. is in a direct competition with China over who controls the future of artificial intelligence. This isn't just about technology. It's about whether AI reflects American values, free speech, open markets, individual liberty, or Beijing's model of centralized surveillance and control.

AI runs on data centers, and data centers run on electricity. A single large-scale AI training facility can consume hundreds of megawatts, each enough to power 80,000 homes. In 2024 alone, China added roughly 340 gigawatts of new power generation capacity, more than the entire installed base of France and the U.K. combined.

Meanwhile, states are moving in the wrong direction. More than 200 datacenter-related bills have been filed across 30-plus states since early 2025, with at least six states moving to block facilities that can't self-supply power. In a market where grid interconnection can take five years and vacancy rates sit near zero, every delay pushes capital somewhere else. That capital doesn't wait around. It moves.

Texas figured this out. ERCOT's natural gas fleet alone tops 70 gigawatts, one of the largest concentrations of dispatchable generation anywhere in the world. Companies are choosing Texas because it offers what other states increasingly won't: available land, skilled workforce, abundant energy, and a regulatory environment that lets projects actually break ground.

Rather than freezing development, Texas lawmakers set clear rules that protect grid reliability while keeping construction moving. The PUCT's new large-load interconnection standards require $100,000 per megawatt in financial security before a project even enters the study queue, pricing out speculators without blocking serious developers. That balance, certainty without paralysis, has become one of the state's strongest competitive advantages.

The Trump administration's AI Action Plan got the core priorities right: faster permitting, regulatory clarity, infrastructure investment. Getting those three things right is the difference between leading this race and watching China pull ahead.