U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) toured OpenAI’s flagship AI data center in Abilene, Texas. The Abilene data center is already underway, and its cloud infrastructure enables OpenAI to train models like ChatGPT. The project is projected to contribute over $1 billion in direct and indirect economic benefit to Abilene over 20 years and will supply thousands of local jobs. Sen. Cruz said, “Texas is leading the way to make sure the United States beats China in the AI race. The framework will also include legislation that would streamline federal permitting for AI infrastructure to ensure that federal AI permitting policy matches the example set in this Texas project.