Technology and Scienceupdated 21m ago2 min read
Democrats Win U.S. Midterms, Pressure AI Firms as Texas, Georgia, Ohio Governors Promise Limits
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Democrats gain control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm results. Texas, Georgia, and Ohio elect Democratic governors amid broader state wins.
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Midterms hit AI infrastructure
AI companies faced market pressure after the U.S. midterm elections, as Democrats won control of Congress and governors of key states including Texas, Georgia, and Ohio on promises to impose limits on the expansion of AI infrastructure. OpenAI launched an outreach campaign and began referring to its data centers as “compute campuses,” while semiconductor companies saw sharp declines in stock prices. Meta’s stock fell about 4% on Thursday, November 5, and Meta CEO, Meta President and COO Dina Powell McCormick said midterm results would make it harder for companies to build data centers.
Elon Musk spent $474 million (€420 million) to back Republican candidates, and the article said he was among the biggest losers in the tech sector after Tuesday’s midterm results. Nvidia’s stock fell 9%, Germany’s Infineon stock was down about 8%, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) fell about 10%.
Community backlash and pivots
Dina Powell McCormick told a Wall Street Journal Tech conference that “The visual embodiment of AI is the data center, and it’s something people can say: I don’t want this in my community.”
J.B. Branch, director of federal AI governance and technology policy at Public Citizen, said the tech industry “realizes they have an optics problem,” and he characterized moves like the Schumer hire and the rebranding as “PR washing.”
OpenAI hired Jessica Schumer, daughter of Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, right before the midterm elections, and the company also said it would start calling its data centers “compute campuses.”
A TechCrunch spokesperson pointed to McCormick’s remark that “You have to work with the government that the American people elect,” and the article said Alice Marwick expected Big Tech to pivot back toward the middle, “if not the left.”
The article said data center moratoriums were gaining traction and a wave of AI regulation bills awaited drafting, while a White House official stated “President Trump is committed to ensuring America continues to lead the world in super intelligence while protecting American consumers.”
Wall Street sell-off and next fights
The “Seven Magnificents” lost more than one trillion dollars in the worst session on Wall Street since April 2025, with Tesla (-10.8%) and Nvidia (-9.3%) leading the declines. The technology index Nasdaq fell today by 5.52%, the S&P 500 declined 4.36%, and the Dow Jones shed 3.44% as AI-sector stock selling dragged the market. The article said local votes opposed to data center projects coincided with the Democratic victory, and it reported that 29 jurisdictions rejected their installation.
DiarioBitcoin said CNBC reported that voters rejected measures related to data centers in all but one, while it also described the rejection as not a nationwide prohibition nor the end of AI infrastructure expansion. The article said the interpretation of the political effect on the market was divergent, and it quoted David Kelly, Chief Global Strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management, saying the result reduced market uncertainty.