Valuetainment - May 15, 2026


"China Is The ENEMY" - Ken Paxton DEFENDS Texas' AI Data Center EXPLOSION


Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

194.57588

Word count

1,124

Sentence count

77


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Another topic that keeps coming up is AI data centers, how 10 years ago we didn't have any AI data centers.
00:00:05.420 And now, you know, we got somewhere between 4,000 data centers currently and another 1,400, I think, that are pending that are being built.
00:00:15.500 And there's all these issues that the local, you know, local people that are not happy about it.
00:00:20.100 You know, Kevin O'Leary, I think, was involved in one in Utah, which was a famous one in the last week or so that we're seeing the local people screaming.
00:00:27.380 We don't we don't want you to come down here.
00:00:28.780 some of the clips of what these data centers sound like, super noisy, some of them less,
00:00:33.220 some of them more, but they need a lot of power. And the noise is made because they need that AC
00:00:37.740 in there to keep the machines cool. So that noise is disturbing people locally. In Texas,
00:00:44.660 I think I saw a number that you guys currently have 40 data centers about to go to 400 in the
00:00:49.980 next two years. What is your opinion on AI data centers? Because there's two arguments to it.
00:00:56.140 where do you stand with that? So it's a complicated issue because obviously we are competing with
00:01:01.720 China and that's artificial intelligence and we cannot lose that race. And so we've got to figure
00:01:08.200 out how to wait, a way to keep up and not just keep up, but to excel and make sure that they
00:01:13.400 don't finish ahead of us and they're not ahead of us because we know that they are. And on the other
00:01:17.920 hand, I have a lot of sensitivity to local communities that don't want things built next
00:01:23.860 to their neighborhoods, I think there needs to be some balance.
00:01:26.700 And there's always going to be a tension, I think,
00:01:28.060 between development and local needs.
00:01:30.600 And I think that needs to be decided by local communities
00:01:33.660 and potentially with the input of their state officials,
00:01:38.080 like their state senators and their state representatives.
00:01:40.380 Those officials, those local elected officials who represent them
00:01:44.060 at the state level are ultimately going to have to look at this
00:01:46.120 from sort of a global standpoint, the tension between development,
00:01:50.500 keeping up with the ARAs, keeping up with technology,
00:01:53.600 versus China and other countries, and also protecting the rights,
00:01:58.620 the property rights, and the lives of people in local communities.
00:02:01.620 So it's not an easy issue.
00:02:02.660 I don't think there's one answer.
00:02:04.380 I just think it needs to be addressed at the state level,
00:02:07.840 and then we need to consider at the local level individual situations.
00:02:11.600 Do you see that as a victory that it's gone from 40 to 402 years?
00:02:15.760 Do you see that as a – because I was at a Goldman event in Dallas,
00:02:19.400 and I was telling you earlier, Raspro Jr. spoke, and he sold Texas.
00:02:23.600 Like, I've never seen anybody sell Texas.
00:02:25.540 He should run for something.
00:02:26.720 It was so amazing the way he sold Texas.
00:02:30.200 And then I saw the governor from Oklahoma come up, tall guy, 6'5", 6'6".
00:02:34.340 He crushed it.
00:02:35.580 He did great.
00:02:36.100 He's very proud of Oklahoma and selling Oklahoma.
00:02:38.900 It was very impressive watching him.
00:02:40.500 And then the stories about, you know, Goldman Sachs, their second biggest facility.
00:02:45.360 I don't know how big it is.
00:02:46.200 I think 800,000 square feet or something like that.
00:02:48.960 Their New York one is 2.1 million or some massive property, but they're building 800,000.
00:02:53.600 and they're moving a ton of people to you as well as a bunch of other companies.
00:02:57.460 So do you see, when you're in a meeting and you're talking to other business folks and entrepreneurs,
00:03:02.540 is it a celebration that Texas has gone from 40 AI data centers to 402 years?
00:03:09.540 I don't know if it's that specific, but it is a celebration that we are open for business,
00:03:15.240 that people are voting with their feet.
00:03:16.680 They're leaving the New York, they're leaving California, they're leaving liberal democratic states.
00:03:21.180 And you know why? Because those policies harm people in their own states. They cost them a lot of money. They hurt their standard of living. And what's great about Texas is we are open for business. Now, look, there's always, you've always got, just like me, I sue companies that do bad things. So we're going to protect consumers. We're going to protect people if companies get out of control. But we want business here. We are welcome. And we're not going to take your money. We're not trying to take your money with state income tax.
00:03:45.260 We have a reasonable tax system, which I still believe needs to be adjusted.
00:03:49.880 But we have a very good environment for people to come live, be successful, educate their kids, take care of their families and create wealth for themselves.
00:03:58.740 And this state is not about taking it from them.
00:04:02.020 Yeah, it'll be interesting how this goes.
00:04:04.820 It is a controversial topic because of where a lot of this power was coming up.
00:04:10.740 We were worried about the amount of power crypto needed to produce and mine Bitcoins.
00:04:14.900 Oh, my God, that's going to be the problem.
00:04:16.600 And all of a sudden, these AI data centers came up, and it's 70% of business for these data centers are now going to, the energy is going to the AI data center.
00:04:27.240 So it'll be interesting.
00:04:28.100 On a golf score, I believe Texas is probably the best state to live in in America, even though I'm in Florida.
00:04:37.400 I think Florida is the top two.
00:04:39.500 But for business, your airports being center, easy to travel to anywhere.
00:04:45.020 And I think you're probably living in one of the best cities in America where you're at.
00:04:49.420 We used to go to that mall every single weekend, the mall that's down the street from you.
00:04:54.180 And they had a cheesecake factory there.
00:04:57.160 We used to go to this Greek restaurant.
00:04:58.540 It's a great area you're in.
00:04:59.540 We love the area you're in.
00:05:01.220 When we left, we miss it till today.
00:05:03.000 But we also love where we are today.
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