Key points
- CoreWeave's letter backs Hinojosa on power bills and water
- CoreWeave doesn't say how much of its capacity is in Texas
- Galaxy's filings show 393 MW still to come at Helios
CoreWeave (CRWV) chief executive Michael Intrator has told Texas Governor-elect Gina Hinojosa that the company will pay for its grid hookups and limit water use as it builds data centers. In a Nov. 7 letter, he said the company supports her principles for making data center growth "work for Texans."
The letter doesn't say how much of CoreWeave's planned capacity is in Texas or how much already has permits. TheStreet flagged those missing figures on Monday.
One landlord's filings show part of CoreWeave's planned Texas footprint. Galaxy Digital (GLXY) has leased 526 megawatts of critical IT load to CoreWeave at its Helios campus in Dickens County and delivered 133 MW. Of the remaining 393 MW, second-phase deliveries of 260 MW are scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2027; rent for the third phase of 133 MW is scheduled to start in 2028.
Galaxy's filings don't say whether all of that remaining capacity has its permits and grid approvals.
What CoreWeave told Hinojosa
Hinojosa won the governor's race on Nov. 3 after calling for a pause on data centers. Intrator wrote to her four days later. Semafor reporter Ashley Gold posted the letter on X, and Bloomberg reported it the same day.
On power bills, Intrator wrote that CoreWeave funds "substations, transmission upgrades, and related buildout, so the costs of our growth are not passed along to neighboring households." On water, he said new capacity will use closed-loop liquid cooling and that "day-to-day water use is comparable to, or lower than, a commercial office building of similar size."
The letter lists active CoreWeave facilities in six places: Austin, Denton, Dickens County, Plano, Richardson, and Round Rock. Its capacity figures are company-wide. CoreWeave had "more than 1.5 gigawatts of active power" across 51 data centers as of June 30, and about 4.2 gigawatts of contracted power as of Aug. 11. The two figures carry different dates, so the gap between them isn't an exact count of unbuilt capacity.
Intrator closed by offering to work with Hinojosa's transition team "on the responsible completion of permitted projects and on clear, durable standards for future development." TheStreet's Opeyemi Babalola wrote that the line "skips everything in between," meaning projects still waiting for approval during a freeze. The letter doesn't say how many of CoreWeave's Texas projects, if any, are in that group.
Hinojosa's own words on permitted projects
The letter says CoreWeave "welcomed your clarification that currently permitted data center projects will be allowed to be completed." It doesn't say when or where she said that. The Next Web said it couldn't find Hinojosa saying it herself.
The closest public account is a Nov. 1 interview with Abilene station KTAB, two days before the election. The station reported that she said the pause would apply to new permits "rather than stopping projects already under construction." The station paraphrased her and didn't quote her directly. In an Oct. 22 video quoted by the Texas Tribune, she said she would issue "a moratorium — a ban — on all data center approvals" until the Legislature passes protections.
After the election, she told CNN that "we need to stop what we are doing with data centers until we have those protections." Nancy Sims, a political science lecturer at the University of Houston, told ABC13 that Hinojosa can only act on future data centers. "You can't really freeze mid-construction," she said. "What she can do is put a moratorium on new data centers."
Hinojosa takes office on Jan. 19. The Legislature convenes a week earlier, on Jan. 12.
How much CoreWeave capacity in Texas is still unbuilt
CoreWeave's filings don't break out its Texas capacity. Core Scientific and Galaxy report their CoreWeave sites, which cover three of the six locations in the letter.
| Site | Landlord | Leased to CoreWeave | Delivered so far | Still to come |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Denton | Core Scientific | About 260 MW | About 260 MW | None reported |
| Austin | Core Scientific | About 20 MW | About 20 MW | None reported |
| Helios, Dickens County | Galaxy | 526 MW | 133 MW | 260 MW from Q2 2027, 133 MW in 2028 |
Core Scientific figures are leased and billing power from its Nov. 5 earnings deck. Galaxy figures are critical IT load from its Oct. 27 shareholder deck. No MW figures are disclosed for Plano, Richardson, or Round Rock.
Core Scientific (CORZ) is billing CoreWeave for all of the Texas capacity it leases to CoreWeave. Most of the CoreWeave capacity it isn't yet billing for is in Dalton, Georgia, due in early 2027. In its latest quarterly filing, the company said its exposure to delays in new Texas grid approvals "is limited with respect to the capacity covered by those agreements."
Critical IT load is the power available to the computing equipment itself. Galaxy's deck lists 800 MW of gross power capacity for the same CoreWeave lease. The 393 MW figure is measured in critical IT load.
At Helios, Galaxy said in its third-quarter results that the second phase "is fully financed and under construction," with data hall deliveries "scheduled to begin in the second quarter of 2027." Its shareholder deck puts that phase's annual base revenue at $675 million. The filings don't give the permit or grid-approval status of the second and third phases.
Texas already paused new grid hookups in August
Gov. Greg Abbott ordered an audit of data centers in Texas' grid connection line on Aug. 3. The grid operator, ERCOT, responded by pausing approvals to energize data centers of 75 MW or more. ERCOT's September board update says the pause covers large data centers not yet connected to its grid and lasts until the audit and a separate community impact review are done. ERCOT will file both reports with state regulators by Dec. 10, and its final decisions on which large projects stay in its connection study come in December. On Sept. 21, Abbott told the state's environmental agency to pause data center permits until ERCOT finishes its review.
Galaxy warned in its June-quarter filing that the audit "may impact the power approval timelines for certain of our data center sites." It didn't name the sites.
How CoreWeave stock has traded since the election
CoreWeave shares fell 9.9% on Nov. 4 and 9.8% on Nov. 5, then rose 6.3% to close at $46.40 on Nov. 6. Barron's reported early Monday that the stock was falling again before the open. By 12:05 p.m. ET, it was up 6.3% at $49.30.
CoreWeave's 9.625% notes due 2032 yielded more than 16% as of Nov. 6. The company reports third-quarter results after the market closes on Nov. 10.
