Texas currently hosts more data centers than every state except Virginia, according to the Pew Research Center. According to ERCOT, there are roughly 474 gigawatts of pending requests to connect large new projects to the Texas grid. Abbott's office said about 90 percent of those requests are tied to data centers, many of them linked to the rapid expansion of AI computing. Where Data Centers Are Still Booming: MapEven as Texas pauses new projects, the broader U.S. data center industry continues to expand. The states with the largest number of operating data centers are Virginia, Texas and California, with 398, 296 and 277, respectively, Pew Research reported.