Agents, Open Models & the Real Cost of AI: Texas News + AI Conference Recap

But first, I do want to share some of the developments that happened across Texas this past week.

Now, maybe one of the bigger stories is one that continues to play out.

about the fight over who's going to pay for AI and the infrastructure, the data centers.

There was a group of heavy hitters who really just launched a company, an organization rather, called the Lone Star Infrastructure Coalition.

It's led by Jimmy Glotfelty, who is a former utility commissioner.

Now, members include Blackstone, QTS, NextEra, Quanta Services, the Nuclear Energy Institute.

There are just too many to name.

But their plan is to really meet directly with residents and communities, some mayors, county officials, and make the case for data centers and the power projects behind them.

Now, we know the timing is not incidental.

Governor Abbott has already said residential ratepayers won't, quote, foot the bill for data center growth in Texas.

Last month, he froze state environmental permits for data center projects until ERCOT had finished their grid and water review, which I think is expected to wrap up in mid-December.

Now, compare that nationally to what's already happening, and we've seen local opposition block about 120 data center projects worth over $200 billion just in the first half of 2026.

But there's also a project in the news that really helps illustrate what the coalition is wanting to promote.

Crusoe just detailed its new AI campus that it's building for Google in Armstrong County, which is in the Panhandle.

It's planned at more than 500 megawatts across two phases, sitting right next to wind farms and using closed-loop cooling that keeps water used mostly to domestic needs.

Crusoe's CEO has said that the strategy is to put AI, quote, directly at the source of abundant, low-cost energy.

Now, cheaper power means cheaper inference, and that may be the state's strongest argument for winning this type of build-out.

Finally, also in the news this past week, we've got Kindrel, who is opening its first U.S.-based AI innovation lab in Frisco.

It's expected to bring up to 300 jobs over the next four years.

And the lab is built around agentic AI, and it puts a cyber defense operations center under the same roof.

Now, that's agent security in practice.

You know, companies moving agents into production with security built in from the very beginning.

So Texas is supplying the power, the land, and now much of the AI work itself.