Texas Governor Orders Audit of Bitcoin Miner Data Center Projects
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered an audit of all data center projects seeking a grid connection before approval, affecting roughly 474 GW of pending requests. This move puts AI infrastructure tied to Bitcoin miners under scrutiny, along with their power sourcing, water use, cooling plans, and ownership.
About 90% of the demand comes from data centers, which is more than five times the grid's record peak load. ERCOT has paused its Batch Zero transmission-planning study due to the order, and a separate PUCT survey shows that only 28 of 377 companies responded when asked about their data center plans.
Bitcoin miners have been pitching investors on multi-gigawatt AI infrastructure pipelines, but this order tests the distinction between these numbers. A gigawatt can bundle different assets, such as raw land near a substation or a queue position waiting for interconnection studies.
Hut 8 stands out with its second-quarter numbers showing $7.5 billion in project-level financing across two flagship sites, River Bend and Beacon Point, backing 949 MW of contracted IT capacity worth roughly $26.6 billion in expected base-term contract value. Hut 8's pipeline includes earlier-stage diligence and exclusivity.
Other companies mentioned include IREN, Cipher Digital, MARA, CleanSpark, Riot Platforms, and Core Scientific, each with varying levels of de-risking and exposure to ERCOT's batch process or other regulatory approvals.