Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced that Amazon, Lancium, and Cipher Digital have agreed to comply with the state’s new data center standards. Stack Infrastructure, Anthropic, and Nightpeak Energy also agreed to comply in a separate announcement.
New Standards for Data Centers
The new standards, established by Abbott, focus on preventing large data centers from transferring infrastructure costs to other electricity customers. Data centers must provide information about projected electricity demand and plans for on-site generation or other measures designed to reduce reliance on the grid.
Companies must also disclose taxpayer-funded incentives, grants, tax abatements, and other public financial assistance tied to their projects. Water use is another major component of the new standards, with data center proposals required to identify their water sources, projected water consumption, water-reuse procedures, and water-efficient cooling technologies.
The requirements come as communities across Texas have debated whether large data centers are compatible with residential areas. Abbott’s position represents a tougher approach than his earlier promotion of Texas as a major destination for AI infrastructure.
Original reporting: The Dallas Express — read the source article.
