West Texas Is Open for Business. Austin Is About to Set the Terms.

Chevron-Microsoft's 2.5-to-5 GW Permian Basin exclusivity deal and LandBridge-PowerBridge's 2 GW Reeves County campus landed the same week Texas legislators dropped interim charges targeting data center power, water, and land use. Developers who'll shape those 2027 rules are already in Austin; the ones who aren't won't like what they inherit.