AI Summary
5 min readIn the wake of the 2026 midterm elections, which saw Democrats secure majorities in both the House and the Senate, the tech industry faced a sudden and sharp reckoning. Many winning candidates ran on slowing AI development and data center construction. Voters in more than a dozen Ohio towns, plus areas in Kansas, Florida, and California, passed local bans or restrictions on new data centers. Texas governor-elect Gina Inoosa campaigned on pausing construction until the legislature passes new regulations. By Wednesday morning, senior OpenAI leaders were discussing whether to reset expectations for next year's capacity, and Bloomberg reported that Microsoft was souring on neocloud deals, cancelling a roughly $3 billion deal with NScale tied to a UK data center.
The Thesis: Panic Is Overblown, and a Deal Is Coming
The host’s central argument is that the market’s negative reaction—a 5-6% correction in tech stocks the day after the election—is an overreaction. He predicted this exact scenario months earlier, in August 2026. His framework is simple: politicians campaign on one thing and govern on another. The Democrats won by running against AI and data centers, but once in power, they will need economic growth and jobs. If they slow the AI trade, the country risks a multi-year recession that will be blamed on them.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:07) **Midterms Shock & Thesis Setup** - Jason opens by framing the midterm results as a direct referendum on Trump's AI and data center policies, which he predicted months earlier.
- 2 (01:14) **The Anti-Data Center Wave in Detail** - The specific election results are read out, including Texas governor-elect Gino Enoosa campaigning on pausing data center construction.
- 3 (03:21) **Jason's Immediate Reaction: Trump Was an A+ on AI** - Jason argues Trump's first-term handling of AI and data centers was "flawless," which made the backlash predictable.
- 4 (05:35) **Gridlock is Actually Good for Markets** - The hosts discuss why a split government may be preferable for tech, as it prevents aggressive regulation.
- 5 (06:46) **The August Prediction Clip: "They'll Make Peace After the Election"** - A clip from August 31, 2026 (episode 2332) is played where Jason predicted exactly this outcome.
- 6 (08:11) **Gavin Baker's Read on the New Texas Governor** - The hosts discuss a note from Gavin Baker predicting Governor Enoosa will pass reasonable laws requiring data centers to pay taxes, not raise consumer power prices, and use union labor.
- 7 (10:02) **"Today's Chaos is Overblown" - Buy the Dip** - Jason declares the market correction a generational buying opportunity for NVIDIA, Amazon, Uber, Tesla, and SpaceX.
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Guests on this episode
Show Notes
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Today’s show:
Democrats swept the midterms, and a lot of their candidates ran explicitly against AI data centers. Then on Thursday, the Nasdaq fell 5%. But fear not: Jason says the panic is overblown. Back in August, he predicted that the anti-data center rhetoric on the campaign trail would transform into cutting a deal once the voters were counted.
On TWiST, Jason and Lon discuss the route to compromise that could define the next year of AI discourse. Find out why Jason still gives President Trump an A+ on AI, even as he lost touch with the country’s mood on other issues.
Plus we’re checking out some highlights from the archive, as the show followed the decline of Trump 2.0 in real time, and Jason explains his simple method for staying informed and in touch with everyday reality. (Talk to lots of different people!)
Plus: OpenAI’s post-election pledge, Anthropic’s first content licensing deal, Apple cuts engineer AI budgets, Lon’s latest This Week in AI demo, and the guys get mega-hyped for “Godzilla Minus Zero.”
Relevant Links
Voters rebuff data centers in every ballot measure except one (CNBC): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/11/04/data-center-ballot-measures-2026-midterm.html
Hinojosa's call for a data center moratorium until the legislature acts (campaign): https://ginafortexas.com/2026/07/new-hinojosa-calls-on-greg-abbott-to-put-moratorium-on-data-centers-until-a-legislative-session-that-puts-texans-first/
Talarico defeats Ken Paxton (Texas Tribune): https://www.texastribune.org/2026/11/03/texas-ken-paxton-james-talarico-us-senate-elections-2026/
Microsoft pulls out of its UK data center deal with Nscale (Computing): https://computing.co.uk/news/2026/ai/microsoft-exits-nscale-deal-ipo-at-risk
Gavin Baker on TX data center rules: https://x.com/GavinSBaker/status/2118420042283102604
California's billionaire tax (Prop 40) goes down (Bloomberg):