Trump said in a Pod Force One podcast interview that he would offer protective pardons to Elon Musk and close aides if Democrats take control of US Congress and investigate them

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The U.S. midterm elections in November 2026 featured a Democratic sweep in Congress and the passage of statewide ballot measures expected to slow artificial intelligence infrastructure development

The Nasdaq suffered its deepest one-day drop in 19 months on November 5, 2026, driven by market scrutiny of AI infrastructure costs following significant Democratic gains in the U.S. midterm elections

Democratic candidates won majorities in Congress and flipped governorships in Texas, Georgia, and Ohio during the November 2026 midterm elections after campaigning against local data center developments

OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar stated on November 6, 2026, that OpenAI will continue expanding its U.S. data centers to meet customer demand despite political scrutiny following the midterm elections

OpenAI Chief Financial Officer Sarah Friar stated on November 6, 2026, that the Democratic midterm election results did not dramatically change OpenAI's plans for an initial public offering (IPO) targeted for 2027

Democrats secured control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate in the 2026 midterm elections while campaigning on platform support for data center construction curbs

OpenAI's November 5, 2026 community commitments followed November 3, 2026 midterm elections where voters in at least 38 jurisdictions approved ballot measures restricting or limiting artificial intelligence data center expansion

Democratic candidates won 2026 gubernatorial races in Texas and Georgia after campaigning on pledges to pause new data center permits and tighten construction rules

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Jensen Huang was summoned to a closed-door session before three congressional committees on China, foreign affairs and intelligence, over a US memo claiming he had a romantic relationship with a suspected Chinese spy

Ten of the 17 U.S. congressional candidates backed by the pro-regulation political funding group Public First were elected in the November 3, 2026 midterm elections

Colorado Representative Manny Rutinel and California Representative Scott Wiener, architects of state-level AI regulation, were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives on November 3, 2026 with support from Public First

Bloomberg reported that half of proposed U.S. AI data center additions could face increased local regulatory scrutiny following the 2026 midterm election results

Leading the Future spent at least $54 million during the 2026 midterms, backed by venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, to support candidates favoring light-touch federal AI regulation

Forty-one of the 48 U.S. congressional candidates backed by the anti-regulation political funding group Leading the Future won their races in the November 3, 2026 midterm elections

A Democratic sweep in the U.S. midterm elections preceding November 5, 2026, generated broader market pessimism and calls for a construction moratorium regarding artificial intelligence project buildouts

A stock market selloff erased $3 trillion in market value from S&P 500 companies following the U.S. midterm elections, hitting chipmakers and neocloud companies

Data center operators Applied Digital Corp., Cipher Digital, and IREN each fell more than 14% during the stock market selloff following the U.S. midterm elections

Junk bonds tied to data center developers CoreWeave Inc. and Galaxy Digital Inc. experienced sharp declines in the high-yield market following the U.S. midterm elections

Meta President Dina Powell McCormick stated at the WSJ Tech conference on November 4, 2026 that Democratic U.S. midterm victories will make building data centers harder, expecting future developments to face increased regulatory review and consideration of constituent support

Democratic candidates who won control of both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives during the 2026 midterm elections campaigned to slow data center and AI expansion, including calls for a national moratorium