PowerBites — Easter Week Edition

This is Power Bites by Julio Zelaya. Today is Friday, April 3rd, 2026. And if you're listening

to this on your commute or maybe stuck in airport traffic, heading somewhere warm for

the long weekend, welcome. This is your Easter Week edition and I promise you the stories

we're covering today read like a liturgical calendar for the age of artificial intelligence.

Stay with me on that. Let's start with the quietest story of the week. On Tuesday, Senator

Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez introduced something called the

AI Data Center Moratorium Act. The bill would freeze all new data center construction in

America until Congress passes comprehensive legislation on AI safety, labor protections

and environmental standards. Now, before you roll your eyes, because I know some of you

just did, let me tell you why this matters even if it never becomes low. And it won't.

Both parties have already said as much. Senator Federman called it a surrender flag to

China, the data center coalition said it would eliminate hundreds of thousands of jobs. But

here's the thing, over a hundred communities across the country have already passed their own

local moratoriums on data center construction. Twelve states have statewide proposals in progress.

People in northern Virginia, in rural Texas, in upstate New York, they're not reading policy briefs.

They're reading their electric bills. Electricity costs rose nearly seven percent last year, more

than double the rate of inflation. That's $123 extra dollars per household. And the Department of

Energy says data centers will drive another four and a half percent spike in commercial electricity

sales this year alone. So the Sanders AOC bill is not a realistic piece of legislation. It's a mirror,

it's asking a very old question dressed in very new clothes. Before you build, have you counted the

cost? And if you're running a company right now, that question isn't theoretical. It's strategic.

Your board, your investors, your community stakeholders, they're going to start asking it if they

haven't already. Think of this bill as holy Saturday for the AI industry, the day between the death

of the old world and the resurrection of the new one. The pause, the silence, the moment where

nothing happens and everything is being decided. Now let's talk about what's being built while

Washington debates whether to pause. On Thursday, March 26th, Meta announced its increasing its

investment in an AI data center in El Paso, Texas from $1.5 billion to $10 billion. That's a sixfold

increase. The facility will reach one gigawatt of capacity by 2028 and create over 4,000 construction

jobs at peak. But here's the detail that caught my ear. Meta is partnering with a non-profit called

Dig Deep to bring clean running water for the first time ever to more than 100 homes near the

facility. They're also collaborating with the Bonneville Environmental Foundation on irrigation

technology for local farmers to reduce water withdrawal by millions of gallons a year.

They've committed to restoring 200% of the water the data center consumes to local watersheds.

Now is that corporate stewardship or reputation management? Honestly, probably both.

And that's fine because here's your practical takeaway. The companies that will win the next decade

of infrastructure aren't the ones that extract the most from a community. They're the ones that

make the community's problem their problem. Meta is building water pipelines in the desert,

not because they're philanthropists, because they understand that social license is the new zoning

permit. If you're an executive evaluating where to expand, ask yourself, what does the community

need that we could provide? Even if it has nothing to do with our product, that question is worth

more than any lobbying budget. One day later, on March 27th, just up the road in Abilene, Texas,

Crusoe announced a new 900 megawatt AI factory campus for Microsoft. This expansion brings

Abilene's total compute capacity to 2.1 gigawatts. To put that in perspective, that's enough electricity

to power over a million homes. On land that just a few years ago was Mesquite Shrubland full of

coyotes and roadrunners. What was originally a cryptocurrency mining site pivoted after Chad

GPT hit. And now it's become one of the largest AI infrastructure complexes in the world.

Open AI, Oracle, SoftBank were already there through the Stargate initiative. When Open AI

decided not to expand further, Microsoft stepped right in. Here's what's fascinating. Crusoe is

building on-site power plants 900 megawatts of behind the meter generation because the grid alone

can't keep up. They're using closed loop liquid cooling that recycles water instead of evaporating

it. And their existing campus already contributes up to 32% of Abilene's property tax revenue.

If you're in real estate, in energy, in logistics, pay attention to Abilene. It's becoming what I

call a silicone prairie. The playbook here is follow the power wherever gigawatts scale energy is

being deployed. A new economic ecosystem is forming. Jobs, housing, tax revenue, supply chains.

The geography of innovation is being rewritten in real time. And it's not in Silicon Valley,

it's in West Texas. Now zoom out. While all this infrastructure is going up, Washington is trying to

figure out who's in charge. On March 20th, the White House released its national policy framework

for artificial intelligence. It's a four-page document. Yes, four pages to govern the most

transformative technology of our lifetime that asks Congress to create a unified federal standard

and preempt the patchwork of state AI laws. The framework covers seven areas. Child safety,

community impacts, intellectual property, free speech, innovation, workforce development,

and national security. It recommends no new federal regulatory body. Instead, it wants existing

agencies and industry-led standards to do the work. The reaction was mixed. Critics called it

empty calories. One policy leader compared it to saccharine, quote, empty of nutrition,

certain to leave a bitter aftertaste. Supporters said it finally clears the path for American

companies to compete with China without 50 different state rulebooks. Here's what you need to know

as a business leader. This framework is not law. It's a wish list. But it tells you where the

wind is blowing. Federal preemption of state AI laws is coming. Maybe not this year, maybe not

next, but the direction is set. If you're building AI products, start designing your compliance

architecture for a single national standard, not 50 state ones. That bet will save you millions.

And then three days later, on March 23, the Treasury Department and the Financial Stability

Oversight Council launch something called the AI Innovation Series. Four round tables bringing

together banks, tech firms, and regulators to figure out how to scale AI in financial services

without blowing up the system. Treasury Secretary Bessent framed it beautifully. He said they're

moving from a posture focused on constraint toward one that recognizes failure to adopt

productivity enhancing technology as its own risk. Read that again. Not adopting AI is now

officially considered a risk by the US Treasury. If you're in financial services lending insurance,

fraud detection compliance, this is your signal. The government isn't just allowing AI adoption.

It's saying that dragging your feet is a threat to national economic security. That's a seismic

shift in tone. So here's your Easter week summary, a moratorium bill that won't pass but reveals the

real tension underneath a $10 billion bet in the desert that comes with water pipelines for families

who've never had running water. A two gigawatt campus rising from Shrubland where coyotes used a

room, a four-page framework trying to govern a trillion dollar revolution, and a Treasury Department

saying, if you're not adopting AI, you're the risk. Five stories, one through line. We are building

the future at extraordinary speed. And the only real question for you, for me, for every decision-maker

listening right now is not whether to participate. It's whether you'll build something that lasts,

something that counts the cost, something that leaves the community better than you found it.

That's the Easter question, isn't it? What are you willing to let die so that something better

can rise? This was Power Bites by Uli Ozelea. Before you go, wherever this weekend takes you,

I want you to hold on to one thought. Decisive moments don't announce themselves. They disguise

themselves as ordinary Tuesdays and Thursday press releases and four-page policy documents.

The people who shape the future aren't the ones with the most information. They're the ones who

act on it first. So take one thing from today's episode, just one, and act on it Monday morning.

That's how empires are built. One decisive moment at a time. Happy Easter. Take care of each

other. I'll see you next week. For more tools and resources, visit www.huleozelea.com. Find musical

inspiration in Huleozelea's original songs on Spotify. And check out my books on Amazon at amazon.com

slash author slash juliozelea links are in the show notes.

In night in the fire deep inside. Let the power of knowledge set your dreams alive.

Power Bites get ready for your success to take flight.

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