AGP Executive Report

Energy & Regulation: Texas has begun requiring rooftop-solar companies and salespeople to register with the state, which can investigate complaints and penalize violations. AI Infrastructure: UT Austin researchers say wastewater from oil and gas operations could help cool data centers, offering a possible way to ease pressure on water supplies as AI demand surges. Semiconductors: Taiwan is planning a $4 billion Texas industrial park for chip suppliers, while TSMC is exploring a state expansion. Power Grid: CenterPoint plans to bury four miles of power lines in Katy, a project expected to reduce storm outages for about 5,600 customers but bring temporary planned interruptions. Jobs: Texas added 154,300 jobs over the year, outpacing national growth, though employment dipped in September. Consumer Protection: Temu agreed to a $3 million Texas settlement and restrictions on data and product-safety practices; separately, the state sued Gerber over alleged misleading claims about heavy-metal testing, allegations the company disputes.

Consumer Protection: Temu will pay Texas $3 million and tighten data handling under a settlement requiring U.S.-based data storage, annual product-safety testing and refunds for customers who bought unsafe goods. Jobs & Growth: Texas added 154,300 jobs over the year through September, outpacing national growth; manufacturing led September’s monthly gains, while unemployment held at 4.4%. Semiconductors: Taiwan is planning a $4 billion Texas industrial park for chip suppliers, as TSMC explores expansion to meet surging AI demand. Data Centers: Texas is increasing scrutiny of the industry: new permits face a pause pending an audit, and Attorney General Ken Paxton is seeking water-use reporting from developers. Energy: Brent crude briefly hit $110 a barrel amid Middle East tensions, adding fresh cost pressure for businesses and consumers. Delivery Innovation: Zipline is expanding autonomous drone deliveries from Round Rock toward Austin, bringing restaurant and retail orders directly to customers.

Jobs & Manufacturing: Texas added 154,300 nonfarm jobs over the past year, growing faster than the nation; manufacturing led September’s monthly gains with 4,700 jobs. Consumer Protection: Temu agreed to pay Texas $3 million and face annual audits under a settlement requiring tighter data-security and product-safety practices. AI Investment: Taiwan is planning an industrial park in Texas costing up to $4 billion to support Nvidia suppliers, while TSMC’s talks with Elon Musk over the Terafab project expose a dispute over who would operate any chip facility. Data Center Scrutiny: Texas leaders are pressing facilities to report water use, but a proposed $500 fine for noncompliance is drawing criticism as too weak to ensure disclosure. Defense Industry: Lockheed Martin is investing $300 million to expand manufacturing in Grand Prairie as demand for missiles drives hiring.

Texas Tech and Auto: Tesla unveiled its long-delayed, SpaceX-linked Roadster at a McGregor test site, showcasing thrusters and a claimed sub-one-second 0–60 mph time. Production is targeted for 2028, making the reveal more engineering showcase than near-term revenue boost. Clean-Energy Manufacturing: Texas is forecast to produce more than 45% of U.S. silicon solar modules in 2027, with manufacturers clustering around the Dallas–Houston corridor. Semiconductor Investment: Taiwan has secured land for a proposed Texas industrial park costing up to $4 billion, aimed at suppliers to Nvidia, TSMC and Foxconn. AI Infrastructure: Global data-center infrastructure revenue rose 27% year over year to $14 billion in the second quarter as AI demand outpaced supply; Texas officials are also seeking water-use reporting from data-center developers. Energy and City Finances: Texas-backed lending is supporting a West Texas gas plant expected to power 110,000 homes, while Houston faces a projected $88 million budget gap.

Data Centers: Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sent water-use reporting demands to 156 developments, while Harris County officials say 46 centers are operating locally and six more are in development. They warn rising power and water demand could strain infrastructure and push up bills. Water Supply: Railroad Commissioner Wayne Christian is urging lawmakers to speed up rules for reusing treated oilfield water, including for data center cooling, as a way to ease pressure on freshwater supplies. Energy Investment: TSMC is weighing a Texas factory as it reports record profit, and a Taylor project has won approval for a 1-gigawatt, behind-the-meter power campus. Nightpeak Energy also brought a 300-megawatt Texas battery site online. Manufacturing and Jobs: Lockheed Martin is expanding advanced munitions production in Texas, with thousands of jobs expected, while GE Aerospace committed $1 million to North Texas workforce training. Cybersecurity: The FBI seized 187 devices in a North Texas investigation into a laptop network allegedly used by North Korean IT workers to access U.S. companies.

Houston Finances: The city faces a projected $88 million budget gap, with property-tax revenue forecast $63 million below budget. Mayor John Whitmire says operational savings and new revenue could close the shortfall without a tax-rate increase. Data Center Policy: Gov. Greg Abbott wants lawmakers to make his proposed data-center rules law next year, including requirements on power costs, water use and neighborhood impacts; challenger Gina Hinojosa is pushing for faster action. World Cup Payoff: Arlington says the tournament’s nine matches helped June and July set hotel-revenue records, adding an estimated $17 million above typical totals. Energy and Industry: Ambrosia Energy plans a Texas factory capable of producing 10 gigawatt-hours of batteries annually for off-grid data centers. Oil prices eased toward $104 a barrel as traders weighed Middle East supply risks against weaker demand forecasts.

Energy & AI: Quaise Energy announced up to $25 million in U.S. funding for its deep-geothermal technology, while a South Texas AI campus secured a 10-megawatt deal that could grow into a $450 million contract. Texas Power: AEP secured up to $3.26 billion in federal funding to modernize the state’s grid, and the Trump administration plans to expand a Delek refinery using wartime powers to boost fuel production. Jobs & Investment: Wagner Logistics will expand in Liberty, creating 79 jobs; Austin-based ICON raised $200 million to scale its 3D-printing technology. Housing: Central Texas home sales fell nearly 15% in September, as buyers gain leverage across a cooling market. Business Security: Federal authorities say a North Korean employment scheme used Texas laptop farms to infiltrate U.S. companies, with investigators seizing more than 180 devices.

Cybersecurity: The FBI seized 187 devices from homes across Texas in a crackdown on an alleged North Korean laptop-farm network that placed workers at more than 70 U.S. companies and funneled about $3 million to the regime. Energy & AI: Fermi shares jumped after AMD agreed to support financing for its Texas Panhandle data-center project, starting with 222 megawatts and leaving room to expand. The Trump administration also plans to use wartime powers to expand Delek’s Tyler refinery and boost fuel production. Texas Companies: Austin-based Bumble is set to go private in a $1.3 billion all-cash acquisition by Ithaca Holdings; founder Whitney Wolfe Herd will stay involved. Healthcare Tech: Taiwanese companies brought hospital AI, remote monitoring and other health technologies to Dallas, seeking U.S. customers and partners as they test the market. Workforce: Gov. Greg Abbott announced nearly $4 million in career and technical education grants for Texas colleges.

Houston Redevelopment: Demolition has begun at the former Greenspoint Mall, where a $150 million project will create an 80-acre industrial park with 1.2 million square feet of space. The development is expected to support about 300 construction jobs and 1,200 permanent jobs. AI and Business Security: Plano approved up to $390,000 for citywide AI tools and oversight. Separately, federal authorities seized about 187 devices from more than 40 Texas residences in a crackdown on alleged “laptop farms” used to place North Korean IT workers at U.S. companies. Data Center Financing: Cipher Digital plans to raise $850 million through convertible notes after agreeing to absorb $359.3 million in cost overruns at its Texas Barber Lake data center. Texas Banking: Texans Credit Union reported 42% growth in active digital banking users, alongside doubled online account openings and faster in-branch account setup. Grid Investment: American Electric Power secured access to as much as $3.26 billion in federal funding to modernize the Texas grid.

Data Center Growth: Taylor approved a deal for a 664-acre campus with a 500-megawatt data center and 750-megawatt gas plant, despite residents’ objections. The city says annexation will give it more control over noise, water use and other impacts. Austin Business: Bumble is in advanced talks to go private in a deal valuing the dating app company at about $1 billion; its shares surged 50% after the news. Critical Minerals: Texas-based EnergyX signed its first lithium offtake agreement, with Trafigura set to buy output from its planned East Texas project. EnergyX says the deal could top $2 billion at current prices. Brazos Valley Expansion: A 279-apartment project near Texas A&M’s RELLIS campus reflects growth in the area’s research, healthcare and technology corridor, with residents expected in 2027. Aerospace Investment: Blue Origin plans a $555 million satellite manufacturing campus in Hutto. Capital Markets: Dillard’s is moving its stock listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the Texas Stock Exchange.

Local Business: Brakes Plus opened its 200th location in Belton, extending the auto-service chain’s Texas footprint. State Economy: Texas distributed $1.3 billion in local sales-tax revenue, up 11.6% from a year earlier, giving cities and counties added revenue as they set budgets. Industrial Investment: Hertha Metals began building a commercial high-purity iron plant in Texas, while Power LNG secured land for a Galveston ship-fueling project. Corporate Growth: Fort Worth-based ConeCraft acquired Rhode Island’s G&G Technologies, adding bioprocessing and filtration capabilities. Energy Markets: Heavy crude is piling up in the Americas as high freight costs curb exports, even as Asian and European buyers face tight supplies.

Permian Energy: Oil theft is affecting nearly half of companies focused on the Permian Basin, a Dallas Fed survey found, as high crude prices raise the payoff for criminals. Power & AI Investment: A 17-gigawatt private power project cleared a key hurdle, while a South Texas AI campus secured an initial 10-megawatt deal that could grow into a $450 million contract. Texas Expansion: Blue Origin committed $550 million to a Texas satellite complex, with plans tied to 2,000 advanced jobs. Capital Markets: Dillard’s moved its stock listing to the Texas Stock Exchange, a prominent test of the state’s effort to build a homegrown market.

Critical Minerals: Hertha Metals broke ground on a Texas plant to make rare-earth magnet material, aiming to build U.S. supply outside China. AI and Power: A South Texas data-center campus signed an initial 10-megawatt hosting deal, with potential charges of up to $450 million over five years. Only the first tranche is committed, and no capacity is energized yet. Industrial Investment: SeAH Besteel is targeting SpaceX’s supply chain with a Texas plant, while Blue Origin has committed about $550 million to a Texas aerospace facility. Business Climate: Texas launched same-day and next-day online business filings, and Dillard’s moved its stock listing to the Texas Stock Exchange.

Aerospace Manufacturing: South Korean steelmaker SeAH plans to begin commercial production next year at its $110 million Temple plant, making superalloy materials for aircraft and space engines and seeking a place in Texas’s growing aerospace supply chain. AI and Energy: A proposed $22.3 billion South Texas campus would pair 6.47 gigawatts of natural-gas power with a 5-gigawatt data-center complex, underscoring the scale of infrastructure investments behind the AI boom. Business and Markets: Dillard’s moved its stock listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the new Texas Stock Exchange, a notable early milestone for the state’s exchange. Regional Pay: A study found weekly wages rose at least 50% over five years in 39 Texas counties; Dickens County led with a reported 212% increase, though that sharp jump is an outlier. Energy Technology: Seismos opened an 87,120-square-foot research center in Jarrell to test acoustic sensing for oilfield and pipeline operations.

Aerospace Investment: Blue Origin plans an approximately $555 million satellite campus in Hutto, with 2,000 jobs expected. Energy & Data Centers: Texas is weighing the costs of rapid data-center growth as AI power demand pushes wholesale electricity prices higher; Austin may also require its biggest water users to conserve. Markets: Dillard’s has moved its stock listing to the Texas Stock Exchange, a milestone for the state’s bid to build a larger financial hub. Business Pulse: Texas sales-tax revenue jumped 11.5% in September, pointing to strong business spending. Critical Minerals: A new report says Texas rare-earth deposits could challenge China’s dominance and generate billions for public schools.

AI Investment: Austin-based ThisWay Global says it acquired the unfinished RELLIS data-center project and plans a phased 73-megawatt AI computing hub at the Texas A&M campus in Bryan. Cattle Industry: Mealybugs have spread to 111 Texas counties, with estimated losses to cattlemen reaching at least $1.5 billion this year and potentially exceeding $2 billion over time. Energy Deals: Crescent Energy agreed to buy Devon Energy’s Eagle Ford assets for $4.2 billion, reshaping a major Texas oil-and-gas portfolio. Aerospace Jobs: Blue Origin is committing $550 million to a Texas satellite complex, with plans for a Hutto factory expected to create 2,000 advanced-manufacturing jobs. Market Watch: More than 70% of announced U.S. solar manufacturing expansions needing 2027 investment remain unfunded or stalled, according to analysis presented at an Austin industry event.