A governor-elect who made data centers a big part of their campaign has already asked Meta to meet, Meta President Dina Powell McCormick said at the Wall Street Journal’s technology conference on Wednesday, the day after the US midterm elections. “We did have a governor that won last night who did make data centers a big part of their platform say, ‘As soon as we get past the inauguration, let’s meet because we don’t want to lose this investment in our town. We don’t want these jobs to go elsewhere,’” she said, as quoted by the Washington Examiner. She did not name the governor-elect.
She also said Meta is in 23 states, and that five of them will have projects of one gigawatt or larger, Texas among them. By our arithmetic, that is 22% of Meta’s states hosting the largest class of its projects.
Business Pill · Who Pays for the Grid
A short explainer on grid cost allocation: who pays when a large new load such as a data center joins the grid. It teaches the general idea only and says nothing about Meta’s remarks.
The key insight:Meta’s president said a governor-elect who made data centers a campaign issue asked to meet after the inauguration so the state would not lose Meta’s investment. Meta is in 23 states, she said, and 5 will host projects of one gigawatt or larger; by our arithmetic, 22%.
Wall St Engine posted Powell McCormick’s account at 13:52 UTC on 5 November, quoting the governor-elect: “We don’t want these jobs to go elsewhere.”
On new sites: “What I mean by that is to start new data center build-outs today in the United States will be very challenging,” she said, according to Seeking Alpha’s account of the WSJ report; she expects “a lot more review” of new projects.
On existing sites: expanding them will be easier “because you’ve had a major track record for a few years, and the community has felt those benefits. They haven’t felt cost. They’ve actually felt benefits.”
On the states: “It’s becoming clear what models work, and the states want those models that work because they want the ability to say, ‘We’ve invested, we have these jobs,’ but there has to be local support,” per The Transcript’s quote of the interview.
On going abroad: “I can also tell you that every hyperscaler is now thinking about ‘Do we need to build outside the United States?’ Because they’re enormous investments, hedging those investments is a wise thing to do,” she said, according to the WSJ report as cited by Seeking Alpha.
On her own job: she said she spends 80% of her time working on securing computing power, Seeking Alpha reported.
States where Meta has data centers, by projectscale: 5 of 23 will have projects of one gigawatt or larger, Texas among them, as Meta president Dina Powell McCormick described it at the WSJ Tech conference on 4 November 2026. The split of 18 other states is our arithmetic.
Powell McCormick declined to name the official. The Washington Examiner noted that Gina Hinojosa in Texas has called for a statewide moratorium on fast-tracked data center approvals, and that Amy Acton in Ohio and Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia campaigned on restricting new data centers and won; it presented Hinojosa only as a possibility. We have not identified the governor-elect. Hinojosa’s proposals on grid costs are covered in Hinojosa Wants Data Centers to Pay Costs; Queue Is 2.1x Peak.
Why It Matters for the Build-Out
The remarks came a day after data center limits led 40 of 41 local ballot measures, per our count from Ballotpedia’s unofficial results: Data Center Limits Lead 40 of 41 Votes; Goldman Flags 45%. On the same day, Seeking Alpha reported, shares of AI chipmakers, memory companies and data center operators fell while hyperscalers rose. Meta’s capital spending this year is up to $145B, Seeking Alpha said, as it builds computing power for its agents.
Her account sets two tracks: new US sites face more review, while existing sites with a track record are easier to expand, and building outside the United States is now a hedge every hyperscaler is weighing, in her words.
As we read her remarks, the post-election bargaining is shifting from whether to build to on what terms: she says states want “models that work” and local support.
As we read the two tracks she described, existing sites gain value: expansions are easier, she said, because communities have “felt benefits,” while new US sites face more review.
As we read the hedge, building abroad is an option she says every hyperscaler is weighing, not a planMeta announced.
Dina Powell McCormick, Meta president, WSJ Tech conference, 4 November 2026
“Every hyperscaler is now thinking about ‘Do we need to build outside the United States?’ Because they’re enormous investments, hedging those investments is a wise thing to do.”
Three Implications
FOR STATES Powell McCormick says states want to be able to say they have invested and have the jobs, but that there has to be local support.
FOR META’S BUILD-OUT She expects more review of new US projects and an easier path for expanding existing sites; 5 of its 23 states will have one-gigawatt-plus projects.
FOR OTHER HYPERSCALERS In her words, every hyperscaler is now asking whether to build outside the United States.
The framework says: “The structural bottleneck isnโt computing, itโs electrons.”
As we read it, the midterms added a political layer on top of the power one: Powell McCormick says new sites now need local support and face more review. The framework itself does not discuss this election.
What Is Not Established
The governor-elect, the state and the project are not named, and the meeting she described has not taken place; the account of the call is Powell McCormick’s alone. Meta did not say which of its 23 states, other than Texas, will host one-gigawatt projects. Several quotes reach us through other outlets’ accounts of the WSJ interview, not the WSJ’s own text.
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Meta’s president said a governor-elect who campaigned on data centers asked to meet after the inauguration to keep Meta’s investment, while she called new US build-outs “very challenging” and said every hyperscaler is weighing sites outside the United States.
A note on sourcing. Powell McCormick spoke at the Wall Street Journal’s technology conference on 4 November 2026. Quotes are as reported by the Washington Examiner, by Seeking Alpha citing the WSJ, and by The Transcript on X. The 22% share is 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.
