States with Democratic governors now account for 77.4 gigawatts of US data-centre power capacity under construction, or 60.3% of the national total, up from 25.0% before the 3 November midterms, according to an analysis by Seoul Economic Daily of Compute Atlas data. The paper attributes the jump to Democrats winning governorships in Texas, Ohio, Georgia, Nevada and Iowa.
By our arithmetic, that is a 35.3-point shift in one election, and about 45 GW of capacity under construction that now sits in states that changed party control of the governor’s office.
Business Pill · Who Pays for the Grid
A short explainer on how grid costs are shared. It teaches the general idea only and does not discuss the elections or the analysis in this piece.
The key insight: States with Democratic governors now hold 60.3% of US data-centre capacity under construction, 77.4 GW, up from 25.0% before the 3 November vote, according to Seoul Economic Daily’s analysis of Compute Atlas data. By our arithmetic, about 45 GW of capacity under construction moved into the Democratic-governor column with five governorships.
Seoul Economic Daily says it measured data-centre power capacity under construction, using Compute Atlas, a tracker of US computing infrastructure. By number of projects under construction, it counts 239 (67.1%) in Democratic-governor states and 116 (32.5%) in Republican-governor states.
Across all facilities that are operating, under construction or planned, the paper counts 1,918 (66.4%) in Democratic-governor states and 939 (32.5%) in Republican-governor states. It says Democrats won 28 governorships in this election and Republicans 20.
Share of US data-centre power capacity under construction in states with Democratic governors, before and after the 3 November 2026 elections, per Seoul Economic Daily’s analysis of Compute Atlas data. The 35.3-point shift, the roughly 45 GW moved and the other-states line are FourWeekMBA’s arithmetic.
What Was Posted on X
Democrats now control most of the AI data center buildout in the United States.
According to Seoul Economic Daily’s analysis of Compute Atlas data, states with Democratic governors now account for 77.4 GW of data center capacity under construction, or 60.3% of the national total.
Before the November 3 midterms, that share was just 25% and the jump came after Democrats took Texas, Ohio, Georgia, Nevada and Iowa.
Counting facilities under construction, 239 projects, or 67.1%, are now in Democratic led states.
I think this is a VERY big shift, because the party that criticized AI data centers is now the one responsible for permitting them.
Analysts expect tougher standards, but they don’t think Democrats will STOP construction outright, since tech investment is about one third of United States growth this year.
Milk Road AI posted the Seoul Economic Daily figures on 8 November: states with Democratic governors account for 77.4 GW of US data-centre capacity under construction, or 60.3% of the total, up from 25% before the 3 November midterms, after Democrats took Texas, Ohio, Georgia, Nevada and Iowa. The post relays the paper’s analysis of Compute Atlas data, which this piece reports from the Korean original.
The Five States
The Associated Press reported that Democrat Gina Hinojosa beat third-term Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in Texas, that Democrat Rob Sand defeated Republican Zach Lahn in Iowa, and that Amy Acton’s victory in Ohio and Keisha Lance Bottoms’ victory in Georgia broke Republican control of state government in those states. The AP also reported that Democrat Aaron Ford was elected Nevada governor, defeating Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo.
Seoul Economic Daily writes that Democrats, who had criticised Republican policy supporting AI data centres, have shifted to a position where they must take responsibility for the issue. It cites HSBC analyst Max Kettner as saying the realistic scenario is more regulation and oversight rather than a broad halt, and analyst Dan Ives as saying on 6 November that the build will not actually stop.
The paper also cites Virginia Senator Mark Warner, a Democrat, who said in March that pausing AI data-centre construction even temporarily would be “idiocy” that lets China move faster, according to the article. ING estimated that tech investment such as AI and data centres accounts for about a third of US growth this year, the paper writes.
As we read the count, the change comes from who won, not from any project moving: the same construction pipeline now sits mostly under Democratic governors because Texas, Ohio, Georgia, Nevada and Iowa changed party control.
As we read the project figures, the shift is larger by count than by share of all facilities: 67.1% of projects under construction against 66.4% of all operating, building or planned sites, per the paper.
As we read the quotes the paper cites, HSBC’s Kettner expects more regulation and oversight rather than a broad halt, Ives says the build will not actually stop, and Senator Warner called a temporary pause “idiocy”.
Mark Warner, US Senator (Virginia), as cited by Seoul Economic Daily
“idiocy”
Three Implications
FOR BUILDERS Seoul Economic Daily cites HSBC’s Max Kettner as saying the realistic scenario is more regulation and oversight rather than a broad halt.
FOR STATE POLITICS The paper writes that Democrats, who had criticised Republican policy supporting AI data centres, have shifted to a position where they must take responsibility for the issue.
FOR THE COUNT Seoul Economic Daily counts 239 projects under construction in Democratic-governor states and 116 in Republican-governor states.
The framework says: “But infrastructure reality is catching up with AI ambitions: a projected 19GW gap between new data center demand and available grid capacity threatens to deflate the AI bubble.”
As we read it, the framework treats grid capacity as the binding constraint on the build; the Seoul Economic Daily count adds who governs the states where that capacity is being built. The framework predates the 3 November elections and does not discuss them.
What Is Not Established
The 77.4 GW, the shares and the project counts are Seoul Economic Daily’s analysis of Compute Atlas data; we did not access the Compute Atlas dataset ourselves, and we did not see a state-by-state breakdown. The 35.3-point shift and the roughly 45 GW that moved with the five states are our arithmetic from the reported figures, and assume the same set of projects before and after the vote.
Governor control does not by itself decide permits, power contracts or local zoning. The quotes from Kettner and Ives are as reported by the paper in Korean.
This Week In The AI Supercycle
The Great Convergence of Capital, Power, and Geopolitics
This week’s issue: for two years the AI build-out was priced as a supply story, and last week as a credit story. This week it was priced as a permission story, and the answer arrived as a cost, not a ban.
Seoul Economic Daily’s count puts 60.3% of US data-centre capacity under construction, 77.4 GW, in states with Democratic governors after the 3 November vote, up from 25.0%. By our arithmetic, about 45 GW of capacity under construction moved into the Democratic-governor column with five governorships.
A note on sourcing. The capacity figures, shares and project counts are from Seoul Economic Daily’s Korean-language analysis of Compute Atlas data, translated by us. Governor results are as reported by the Associated Press. The 35.3-point shift and the roughly 45 GW are our arithmetic.
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.
