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Texas Governor Greg Abbott has hit the brakes on new data center connections to the state's power grid, ordering audits that will examine power consumption, water usage, tax exemptions, and community impact. The state already hosts more than five hundred data centers, and officials are now grappling with a demand figure that runs into the hundreds of gigawatts — a number that apparently caught even regulators off guard.
That energy pressure connects to a broader tension playing out in living rooms across the country. Texas residents are watching their electricity and water bills climb faster than inflation, and the explosive growth of data center infrastructure is a central reason why. The tradeoff between economic development and household costs is becoming harder for state leaders to ignore.
Meanwhile, Google is deepening its AI footprint inside everyday browsing. Gemini Spark is now integrated directly into Chrome, allowing the AI to run longer background tasks while you continue browsing — effectively giving the browser a second set of hands. It's a meaningful shift from AI as a chatbot toward AI as a persistent, ambient collaborator embedded in your daily workflow.
Those are the stories driving conversation today. Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.
