After the midterms, things are looking rocky for Elon Musk and data centers

Democrats' win in this week's U.S. midterm elections could make life harder for data center builders and for Elon Musk, according to a discussion on TechCrunch's Equity podcast between Kirsten Korosec, Sean O'Kane and Anthony Ha.

Voters decided dozens of local ballot measures about data centers. TechCrunch notes that many would impose restrictions or moratoriums, and that almost all of those passed. Voters also elected candidates who campaigned on limiting the facilities, including Texas governor-elect Gina Hinojosa, who defeated Greg Abbott.

O'Kane argued that Musk appears to have gained little from donating around half a billion dollars to Republicans, and that his companies are now headquartered in a state that has turned sharply toward Democrats. Korosec said data centers were probably not the main cause of the result, but have become a grassroots issue because of how companies sought approval, often in secrecy and with non-disclosure agreements for local officials, including in areas short of water.

The hosts pointed to OpenAI's new compute campus policy blueprint, in which the company says it will stop requiring NDAs and share its plans, as a sign that companies respond to political pressure. Ha suggested the new name is also an attempt to rebrand data centers. He added that Wall Street has cooled on heavy spending on new capacity, so builders now face financial as well as regulatory headwinds.