Hello everyone! AITX Team here with more updates this week.
If you’re new here, welcome! 👋 At AITX, we aim to:
Connect you with like-minded peers passionate about AI.
Provide a space for sharing ideas and receiving feedback on AI projects you’re building.
Share helpful tools and invaluable resources.
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Before we jump into the regular news, a few housekeeping items:
Upcoming AITX Community Events:
Austin AITX Community Monthly Meetup | sign up here!
Houston AITX Community Monthly Meetup | sign up here!
To stay in the loop on all our monthly meetups and other community organized events, subscribe to our AITX Community calendar here.
Check out our Community Directory:
Where you can fill out your profile and find other members of the AITX community. If you haven’t filled out your profile yet, please follow the link HERE and submit your information.
AITX Community Member Survey
As we head into the summer, we wanted to take the time to ask how we can help y’all better.
Please fill out this survey to tell us how we can better help you (takes less than 2 minutes) 👇
Psst… we’re throwing another hackathon 🤭
This is even is still private on our calendar so if you’re reading this, you’re early ;)
AITX Community is partnering with NVIDIA for a hands-on NemoClaw hackathon focused on building real autonomous agent applications. Participants will use NemoClaw, NVIDIA Agent Toolkit, and Nemotron models to build agents that do more than chat: they should take action, coordinate tools, and produce a working demo by the end of the event.
This is built for AI engineers, builders, founders, researchers, and technical operators who want to experiment with the next generation of agentic systems.
You do not need to be an expert in NemoClaw before arriving, but you should be comfortable building quickly and shipping a demo.
State of AI in Texas Report Survey Live!
Howdy! The State of AI in Texas Report (STAR) has been finalized.
AITX Community and UT School of Law is excited to hear what the community has to say! By mapping the AI landscape and understanding stakeholder interactions, we hope to identify key businesses involved with AI development in Texas.
And by learning about AI product usage and how to support needs of new AI developers, we aim to provide a report that will both inform smart AI policy and serve as a guide for businesses on AI development.
THE WHO – We Want to Hear From You: If you’re based in Texas and work at Startups, Scaleups, or Enterprises, this survey is for you.
This is your chance to have your voice heard.
Meta Launching America’s Workforce Academy
As part of the American AI buildout, Meta is launching America's Workforce Academy (AWA) — a nationwide, fast-track to a long-term career in a skilled trade, powered by an initial $115 million first year investment. It’s the largest private-sector commitment to the skilled trades with a job guarantee in American history. You can read more about AWA in Meta’s Newsroom Post and a Wall Street Journal op-ed co-authored by Dina Powell McCormick and Mike Rowe. We’re proud that Texas will be home to one of our four 2026 pilot locations for this program.
This program is part of Meta's broader investment in Texas, where we’re proud that our data center infrastructure is creating lasting economic opportunity for the people of El Paso, Temple, and Fort Worth.
In this week’s edition you’re getting:
5 Upcoming Events
3 AI Community Stories
So let’s jump in!
Community Events
When: Tuesday, June 30 | 5:30 PM - 7:00 PM CST
Where: Antler VC Austin, TX
What: This summer, Austin AI Hub is co-hosting Call for Code AI: United Against Trafficking, a global hackathon in partnership with UN Human Rights and Call for Code AI. The mission: build AI tools that detect, disrupt, and respond to human trafficking. Hackathon projects are stronger when you're not building alone, so we're getting builders in one room before the deadline.
When: Thursday, June 25 | 5:00 PM - 7:30 PM CST
Where: The Malin East Austin Austin, TX
What: This is an open mic night for Customer Success and post-sales pros in Austin. Bring your laptop, share your screen, and walk us through an AI use case you've built.
When: Wednesday, June 24 | 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM CDT
Where: CGCS, ACC Rio Campus Build #3000 1218 West Ave Bldg #3000 · Austin, TX
What: Join us on Wednesday, June 24, 2026, from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM CST at The Center for Government and Civic Service, 1218 West Ave, Building 3000, Austin, TX 78701. This meetup will feature a series of community-driven talks focused on real-world applications and forward-looking innovations across: AI and GenAI platforms, Cloud-native and scalable infrastructure, DevOps and platform engineering, Security and identity in modern systems
When: Friday, July 10 5:30 PM - Jul 11, 6:30 PM
Where: Antler VC Austin, TX
What: A hands-on Organized AI workshop for builders moving beyond AI chat into real agentic systems. We’ll walk through the full agentic engineering stack: agents, workflows, second brains, model routing, subagent orchestration, browser QA, telemetry, recursive self-improvement, deployment, and visual system design.
When: Wednesday, June 24 | 5:30 PM - 7:30 PM CST
Where: Elastic Office 823 Congress Ave · Austin, TX
What: Agenda:
5:30 pm: Doors open
6:00 pm: Building AI Workflows with Elasticsearch, RAG, and Edge Observability - Binoy Jose and Benjamin Francis
6:30 pm: Talk # 2 - Interested in presenting? Let us know!
7:15-8:00 pm: Networking
COMMUNITY STORIES
Texas' power grid operator ERCOT has been inundated with 519 connection requests from large power users over the past two years-a staggering jump from just 24 in the prior period. The vast majority of these requests come from AI data centers, with proposed projects representing an estimated 438,595 megawatts of possible demand, 90% of which is tied to data centers targeting a 2030 launch. ERCOT's CEO has called this "an unprecedented change in the pace of growth" as the state's already-scrutinized grid faces new pressure from AI's explosive electricity needs.
Why it matters: The massive surge in AI data center requests highlights the critical infrastructure challenges facing AI deployment and could impact where and how quickly AI companies like AITX can scale their operations.
Need to know:
ERCOT received 519 large power user connection requests in two years, up from only 24 in the previous period-a 2,062% increase driven primarily by AI data centers
Proposed AI data center projects represent approximately 438,595 megawatts of potential electricity demand, with 90% targeting deployment by 2030
Not all proposed projects are expected to be built, but the requests signal unprecedented strain on a grid already facing reliability concerns after recent challenges
A Democratic candidate for Agriculture Commissioner is calling for a statewide moratorium on new AI data centers, arguing they threaten Texas water, power bills, farms, and rural communities.
Why it matters: The infrastructure powering the AI boom is becoming a political flashpoint, and the people building it here need to understand the opposition forming around them.
Need-to-know:
The op-ed claims data centers can nearly double power prices in some states and that the public usually foots the bill for grid connections even when Big Tech pays for new power generation.
Water is the sharpest concern, with West Texas data centers competing for supply in drought-prone regions where cities like Corpus Christi are already running low and some Permian oil rigs may shut down over water shortages.
The Texas Farmers Union is formally backing a moratorium until more research is done, and there is a push to give counties local control over whether data centers can move in.
Hood County, a community of 62,000 southwest of Fort Worth, is facing eight proposed data centers spanning 12 square miles, and local officials say state law leaves them almost no authority to slow it down.
Why it matters: Nearly half of the 248 data centers planned in Texas are headed for unincorporated areas where counties can't zone, setting up the legal and political fights that will shape where AI infrastructure actually gets built.
Need-to-know:
Developers favor rural counties because they lack zoning power, and the pressure on the grid is staggering, with ERCOT reporting 439 gigawatts of pending interconnection requests, about 89% of it data centers and five times the grid's all-time peak demand.
Hood County tried twice to pass a moratorium and failed after Sen. Paul Bettencourt asked AG Ken Paxton to investigate counties attempting pauses, arguing they lack constitutional authority to issue building moratoriums.
When Hood tightened its development rules and revoked an approved concept plan over water concerns, developers sued, and nearby Hill County is already being hit with a $100 million suit for approving a one-year pause.
That’s all for now, folks!
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