CoreWeave Writes to Texas’s Next Governor

AUSTIN, Tex., Nov. 7 — CoreWeave’sCoreWeave’s chief executive, Michael Intrator, has written to Gina Hinojosa, the Democrat who will be Texas’s next governor and who campaigned on a moratorium on data centers, seeking to work with her incoming administration on its projects in the state, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday. “You have made clear that data center growth must work for Texas,” Mr. Intrator said, as quoted by Bloomberg. “We strongly support those principles.”

What the company wants is in one sentence. “We welcome the opportunity to work with your transition team on the responsible completion of permitted projects and on clear, durable standards for future development,” he said. Investing.com quoted the same words.

The word that matters is “permitted.” Ms. Hinojosa takes office on Jan. 19, and CoreWeave is asking, before she does, that what has already been approved be allowed to finish. Carl Holshouser, who wrote on LinkedIn on Saturday that he had helped put the letter together, said the company appreciated “the Governor-elect’s clarity that projects already permitted can be completed.” He did not say where she had said so, and the desk could not independently verify that clarification.

The Pledge

Ms. Hinojosa beat Gov. Greg Abbott on Nov. 3, in a race called by The Associated Press; Mr. Abbott conceded that night. She is the first Democrat since 1990 to win an election for Texas governor, Bloomberg noted. “When I am governor I will issue a moratorium — a ban — on all data center approvals until laws can be passed by the Legislature to protect Texans,” she said in a video posted to X on Oct. 22, as quoted by The Texas Tribune. Her campaign’s site calls for “an immediate moratorium on data centers to last until the legislature can meet to put in place real protections.”

Since winning, she has spoken of balance. “We have always been a pro-business state in Texas, but what changes now with me as governor is it has to be a partnership that benefits Texans,” she told CNN on Thursday, as quoted by Bloomberg.

We have always been a pro-business state in Texas, but what changes now with me as governor is it has to be a partnership that benefits Texans.

The Terms

The letter answers her on cost and water, by Stocktwits’ account of it; the desk did not see the letter itself. Mr. Intrator wrote that CoreWeave funds the infrastructure that connects new facilities to the grid, including substations and transmission upgrades, rather than passing those expenses to neighboring households, and that new capacity will use closed-loop liquid cooling, Stocktwits reported.Closed LoopSuch systems recirculate coolant through sealed pipes rather than continuously drawing fresh water from local supplies, Stocktwits explained. “Day-to-day water use is comparable to, or lower than, a commercial office building of similar size,” he wrote, as quoted by Stocktwits. The company said it operates facilities in Austin, Denton, Dickens County, Plano, Richardson and Round Rock, Stocktwits reported.

Texas had slowed the industry before the vote: Mr. Abbott halted the connection of new data centers to the state’s grid on Aug. 3 and ordered an audit expected to conclude at the end of 2026, Reuters reported. ERCOT, the state’s grid operator, aims to submit its full audit report by Dec. 10, for discussion at the Public Utility Commission’s Dec. 17 meeting, the San Antonio Express-News reported.The QueueBy the time of the halt, ERCOT said it was tracking more than 400 gigawatts of data-center projects seeking to connect, Reuters reported. He later froze environmental permits for data centers as well, The Texas Tribune reported; her campaign had called Mr. Abbott’s temporary pause “a scam,” predicting he would lift it after the election. Some Texas projects are likely to be delayed or see developers leave the state, while others will hurry to finish before new restrictions take hold, Austin McCarty, a government affairs adviser at the law firm K&L Gates, told Reuters. The chief executive of Vistra, which owns power plants in Texas, said on Friday that the election results did not change its fundamental view, as this paper reported.

CoreWeave’s shares closed Friday at $46.40, up 6.28 percent on the day but down 15.44 percent for the week, and it reports its third quarter with a call at 5 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, Nov. 10.