Democrats Retake Congress, Data Center Backlash and Radiant’s Power Philosophy for AI

Democratic Sweep Puts Data Center Buildout at Risk

Guest interviews

• Bradley Tusk, founder of Tusk Ventures. Tusk says the midterms change little for tech, since Democrats hold 55 Senate seats and about 260 House seats, short of the 66 and 290 needed to override a veto. He expects the House to pass frontier model safety rules and an FDA-style approval model for new models, but sees low odds any of it becomes law. He predicts retribution for startups closely tied to Trump when Democrats return in 2028, and says a Democratic Congress will legislate on prediction markets.
• Charles Hua, founder of Powerlines. Hua says Texas governor Greg Abbott has called for a data center moratorium, and New Jersey's governor signed energy and data center executive orders on inauguration day. Jefferies estimates up to 13GW of Texas data center projects could be at risk under a Hinojosa administration. He blames an aging grid and extreme weather for higher bills, not data centers, noting utilities sought a record $31bn in rate increases last year and plan $1.4tn of capex over five years.
• CJ Muse, semiconductor analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald. Muse calls the reaction a flight to quality that favours hyperscalers and Nvidia. He says TSMC was sold out and under-shipping by 20%, substrate and equipment are now short, and compute stays sold out, so capex plans hold for twelve months, with capex beyond that 10 to 15% lower. He says AMD's server CPU business will pass Intel's in calendar 2027 at about $36bn versus $32bn, crediting Lisa Su.
• Mahdi Yahya, CEO of Radiant. Yahya says Radiant, wholly owned by Brookfield and formed from its acquisition of Ori Industries, brings powered land, capital, software and compute together, and that the bottleneck is execution and sourcing power, not demand or capital. He says Radiant goes power first, seeks clean energy, and welcomes the UK's Data Center Covenant, arguing community pushback is partly the fault of inexperienced operators.

News

• Democrats Retake Congress and Key Governor Seats. Democrats took the Senate and the House and won governor races in Texas, Georgia and Ohio. Gina Hinojosa became the first Democrat elected Texas governor since 1990, and stocks rose on the results.
• Voters Reject Data Centers in Five States. Local ballots in Florida, Ohio, Kansas, Illinois and New Jersey rejected data centers, and moratoriums were central to Hinojosa's Texas campaign. Utility shares Southern Company and AEP fell after the results.
• AMD Earnings Impress Investors. AMD reported quarterly results the night before that impressed investors, a bright spot as concerns about AI infrastructure spending weighed on tech.