CoreWeave sent a letter to Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa seeking to work with her incoming administration on present and future data center projects in the state, Bloomberg reported on November 7. The two-page letter, dated November 7 and signed by co-founder and chief executive Michael Intrator, lists six places where CoreWeave says it has active Texas facilities: Austin, Denton, Dickens County, Plano, Richardson and Round Rock.
The letter says CoreWeave operated 51 data centers with more than 1.5 gigawatts of active power as of June 30, and had about 4.2 gigawatts of contracted power capacity as of August 11. By our arithmetic, about 2.7 gigawatts, roughly 64% of the contracted figure, was not yet active. CoreWeave reports third-quarter results on Tuesday, November 10.
Business Pill · Who Pays for the Grid
An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on how grid connection costs are allocated. It teaches the general idea only and does not discuss the letter in this piece.
The key insight: CoreWeave’s November 7 letter to Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa says the company supports her stated principles on data center growth and names six Texas places with active CoreWeave facilities; by our arithmetic from the letter’s figures, about 2.7 gigawatts of its roughly 4.2 gigawatts of contracted power was not yet active.
Reporter Ashley Gold posted both pages on X. The letter opens by restating the governor-elect’s position as CoreWeave describes it: “You have made clear that data center growth must work for Texans”. It lists three points: “communities should have a voice, households should not be left paying for new infrastructure, and development should protect local water, power, and quality of life”. It then says: “We strongly support those principles”.
The letter also says CoreWeave “welcomed your clarification that currently permitted data center projects will be allowed to be completed”, and calls that “a clear starting point for working together on the standards that will govern future development”. It closes by offering to work with the transition team “on the responsible completion of permitted projects and on clear, durable standards for future development”.
CoreWeave contracted power capacity of approximately 4.2 GW (11 Aug 2026), split into more than 1.5 GW of active power (30 Jun 2026), about 36%, and about 2.7 GW contracted but not yet active, about 64%. Our arithmetic from the figures in CoreWeave’s 7 Nov 2026 letter; approximate, dates differ.
What Was Posted on X
.@CoreWeave writes to @GinaHinojosaTX pledging to work with her and TX communities on responsible data center development
A post by reporter Ashley Gold (@ashleyrgold) at 18:14 UTC on 7 November with both pages of CoreWeave’s letter to Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa. Gold writes that CoreWeave pledges to work with her and Texas communities on responsible data center development. The letter quotes in this piece are taken from these two pages.
David Sacks says fully permitted data centers will get built in 2027, but “I get really worried about 2028”
“My base case is that the projects that are fully permitted will get done in 2027, but I don’t think there’s going to be major new projects in this new regime for a long time, for the simple reason that there’s no political incentive for anyone to grant a new permit or a new project. What’s their incentive?”
“Think about this. In this last election, you had both Democrats and Republicans running campaign attack ads on any politician who approved any data center. So think about if you’re a politician, or you’re just like a civil servant who maybe wants to move up the ladder, what is your incentive to stamp approval on anything I don’t see it. I mean, I don’t see anyone who is ambitious politically wanting to stick their neck out in any way to approve anything over the next four years.”
“So look, I think probably the ones that are already approved and fully permitted, I think those probably get done. But the ones that are not approved yet, good luck. I think it’s going to be very difficult. So I think we get by in 2027. I think there’ll still be meaningful capex. I get really worried about 2028. And the Democrats, I think, in a way have a perverse incentive around this, because if that capex tanks in 2028, they will blame Trump for that.”
A clip posted by @firesidealpha at 19:17 UTC on 7 November, attributing to David Sacks the view that fully permitted data centers will get built in 2027, and quoting him: “I get really worried about 2028”. The thread links the full All-In episode.
What CoreWeave Says It Pays For
On grid costs, the letter says: “When CoreWeave connects a new facility to the grid, we fund the infrastructure required for that connection, including substations, transmission upgrades, and related buildout, so the costs of our growth are not passed along to neighboring households”.
On water, it says new CoreWeave capacity “will also use closed-loop liquid cooling systems by design”, and that “Day-to-day water use is comparable to, or lower than, a commercial office building of similar size”. On rules, it says that as the principles “are translated into law and implemented through applicable rules, CoreWeave intends to meet the requirements governing our Texas operations”.
Our Number: About 2.7 GW Not Yet Active
The letter gives two company-wide power figures: “more than 1.5 gigawatts of active power” as of June 30, 2026, and “approximately 4.2 gigawatts of contracted power capacity” as of August 11, 2026. By our arithmetic, 1.5 divided by 4.2 is about 36%, leaving roughly 2.7 gigawatts of contracted capacity that was not yet active. The two figures are approximate and six weeks apart, so the split is approximate.
The letter does not say how much of either figure is in Texas, or which of the six Texas sites are fully permitted. Our revenue-per-megawatt comparison set CoreWeave against Nebius and IREN, and our earnings preview covers what CoreWeave reports on Tuesday.
Sacks: ‘I Get Really Worried About 2028’
On the All-In podcast episode published on November 7, David Sacks discussed data center permits after the election; a clip posted on X attributes the passage to him. In the episode’s auto-generated captions, he says: “My base case is that the projects that are fully permitted will get done in 2027, but I don’t think there’s going to be major new projects in this new regime for a long time”.
Later in the passage he says: “I think probably the ones that are already approved and fully permitted, I think those probably get done, but the ones that are not approved yet, good luck”, and “I think we get by in 2027. I think there’ll still be meaningful capex. I get really worried about 2028”. These are Sacks’s views, quoted from the captions.
Where This Fits
Earlier on November 7, we reported on records said to show a SpaceX Starbase supercomputer, from The Information’s article that sets the project against Hinojosa’s election. Before the vote, our piece on midterm pause pledges quoted SemiAnalysis saying Hinojosa “would impose a moratorium until legislation is passed that gives communities a voice and protects household utility bills, as well as ends the tax incentives for datacenters”. On November 5, Meta said an unnamed governor-elect asked to meet about its investment.
The Structural Read
As we read the letter, its central commitment is on cost: it says CoreWeave funds the substations, transmission upgrades and related buildout for each new grid connection.
As we read the figures, most of CoreWeave’s contracted power was still to be brought online: by our arithmetic, about 64% of the roughly 4.2 gigawatts was not yet active.
As we read Sacks’s remarks, his concern is about projects without permits rather than those already approved, which he says probably get done.
Michael Intrator, CoreWeave, letter to Gina Hinojosa
“We strongly support those principles”
Three Implications
FOR TEXAS SITES The letter names Austin, Denton, Dickens County, Plano, Richardson and Round Rock as places with active CoreWeave facilities.
FOR GRID COSTS The letter says CoreWeave funds the infrastructure required to connect each new facility, so the costs are not passed along to neighboring households.
FOR READERS OF TUESDAY’S RESULTS The letter gives more than 1.5 gigawatts of active power at June 30 and about 4.2 gigawatts contracted at August 11; CoreWeave reports third-quarter results on November 10.
The analysis says: “The job of any operator, investor, or builder is to know which layer they are operating inside and which layer the binding constraint is rotating toward next.”
As we read it, CoreWeave’s letter is addressed to the permitting layer: it offers to fund grid connections and meet new rules for its Texas operations. The analysis does not discuss the letter.
What Is Not Established
We did not find a response from Hinojosa or her transition team to CoreWeave’s letter. Bloomberg’s article was only partly readable to us; the letter text here is from the two pages Gold posted. The governor-elect’s clarification on permitted projects is described here as CoreWeave’s letter describes it. The Sacks quotes come from auto-generated captions and may contain transcription errors. This piece does not say whether any CoreWeave project in Texas is affected.
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CoreWeave’s November 7 letter to Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa says the company supports her stated principles on data center growth, names six Texas places with active CoreWeave facilities, and says it funds the grid connections for new sites. By our arithmetic from the letter’s own figures, about 2.7 gigawatts of CoreWeave’s roughly 4.2 gigawatts of contracted power was not yet active.
A note on sourcing. The letter text is from the two pages reporter Ashley Gold posted on X; Bloomberg reported the letter. The Sacks quotes are from the All-In episode’s auto-generated captions. The 36% and 2.7 GW figures are our arithmetic from the letter’s own approximate figures.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
