Silva: Data Centers Are a Win for Texas and the Rio Grande Valley

The Rio Grande Valley stands at the forefront of Texas’s next great economic opportunity: data center development. As an organization dedicated to driving economic prosperity in our community, the Rio Grande Valley Partnership recognizes that data centers are not just vital to Texas’s growth but also hold enormous potential for the Valley itself. By embracing these digital infrastructure investments, we can create jobs, strengthen the regional economy, and play a key role in bolstering national security in the wake of threats from foreign enemies like China.

Texas’s economic success is built on its commitment to free-market principles. This framework has made Texas the eighth-largest economy in the world and a magnet for businesses. Unlike states hampered by heavy-handed government control over the power market—California being a prime example—Texas’s competitive wholesale energy market ensures affordable, reliable power for families and businesses alike. This business-friendly environment makes the Rio Grande Valley an attractive destination for industries like technology, manufacturing, and now, data centers.

Data centers are the factories of the future, powering everything from cloud computing to artificial intelligence. Encouraging their development represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for our region. These facilities generate critical tax revenue for local governments and spur additional investment in the local economy, including adding more than 49,000 direct jobs across Texas in 2021. For areas like the Valley, they can act as catalysts, attracting ancillary industries and creating a ripple effect of economic benefits that uplift entire communities.

Data centers also enhance energy market stability. By committing to long-term power agreements, they provide certainty to energy generators, ensuring consistent investment in the infrastructure needed to meet Texas’s growing power demands. Critically, these facilities are designed with backup power systems, enabling them to redirect electricity back to the grid during emergencies. This dual benefit ensures reliability for the state while maintaining affordability for middle class Americans.

However, Texas must do its part too. It is important for Texas to foster a regulatory environment that ensures power generation can reliably meet the growing energy demands of AI while maintaining competitive prices to support innovation and economic growth.

Beyond the clear economic gains, data centers are essential to our national security. By reducing dependence on foreign digital networks, American data centers protect critical systems from cyberattacks and espionage. They also safeguard the United States’ leadership in emerging technologies like quantum computing and AI, which are vital to defense and intelligence capabilities. By encouraging data center development, Texas strengthens its role in ensuring America’s security and technological independence.

The Rio Grande Valley is uniquely positioned to lead in this effort. Our region boasts a strategic location on the U.S.-Mexico border, meaning we are bordered by the world’s largest economy (the United States), the eighth-largest economy (Texas), and the thirteenth-largest economy (Mexico). Co-locating data centers near existing or planned power plants in the Valley can further enhance development efficiency and reduce costs, avoiding burdensome transmission upgrades and ensuring that the benefits of these facilities are felt locally, from job creation to increased economic activity.

We cannot afford to let this opportunity slip away. States across the country are vying for the same investments, and if Texas hesitates, other regions with friendlier regulatory environments will seize the advantage. Worse, failing to act could mean ceding this critical sector to foreign competitors like the Chinese Communist Party, who have spent $6.1 billion building data centers in the past two years.

The Rio Grande Valley Partnership urges state policymakers to limit unnecessary government interference in the power market and maintain the competitive environment that has made Texas a beacon for business. By fostering data center development, we can ensure that the Valley—and all of Texas—continues to thrive in the 21st-century economy.

Data centers are not just a win for the Rio Grande Valley—they are a win for Texas as a whole. They represent a bridge to economic growth, innovation, and security, and the state of Texas should welcome them with open arms. The Rio Grande Valley Partnership stands ready to work with stakeholders and elected officials across the state to seize this opportunity and secure a prosperous future for our region, state and country, as we enter the new technology frontier.

Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by Daniel Silva, president and CEO of the Rio Grande Valley Partnership. The column appears in the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service with the permission of the author. Silva can be reached by email via: daniel@rgvpartnership.com.

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