Lipman ran through a David Letterman-style countdown of the issues shaping broadband and digital infrastructure.

It is the same format he used at Metro Connect USA in February, but six months on, several of his predictions have hardened into live regulatory and market flashpoints, led by Texas.

Texas’s data centre pause could run into 2027

Everything is bigger in Texas, Lipman told delegates, and that now includes the backlash. With planned data centres in the state expected to quadruple, opposition has turned the state into what he called “ground zero” for NIMBY resistance, an opposition broad enough that even musician Willie Nelson has spoken out against it.

Governor Greg Abbott’s moratorium, which Capacity covered when it was first announced in August, functions less like a statutory ban and more like an approval screen, Lipman said. He expects the pause to extend into 2027, with the Texas Public Utility Commission and ERCOT required to audit every project in the queue before new connections proceed. A recent Hahn poll found only 28% of Texans view data centres positively, against 43% who are neutral.

Politicisation is spreading to other states

Data centres have become a political scapegoat nationwide, not just in New York, but across “RED states” too, Lipman said, comparing local and state pushback to the mythical King Canute trying to hold back the tide. Progressive groups and others are pursuing federal and local moratoriums in 12 states, and he expects the backlash to intensify ahead of November’s mid-terms.

The industry needs its own “truth squad”

Lipman drew a direct parallel with the tower industry’s NIMBY battles of the early 2000s, when a decade-long, unified response from carriers and local government eventually shifted the public narrative around wireless infrastructure. He suggested data centre operators need a similar, coordinated approach to counter what he called escalating misinformation about energy, water and noise impacts, alongside more direct community investment, such as local tax or royalty arrangements, to build political support.

Hyperscaler spending could hit $1.1tn in 2027

Record data centre demand of 19.0 GW was recorded in the first half of 2026 alone. Investment banks are now estimating AI hyperspend of $800bn this year, rising to $1.1tn in 2027. Enterprise demand is compounding the squeeze, with vacancies at record lows and operators reporting 40-50% like-for-like renewal spreads, according to Lipman.

Power is now the binding constraint

The average data centre has grown from 25MW in 2020 to 80MW last year, and data centres already account for 4.5% of US electricity consumption, a figure Lipman expects to climb to 17-20% by 2030. Texas electricity prices rose 22% last year, and large-load tariffs between utilities and data centre operators remain contested. Lipman pointed to a growing trend of facilities building their own off-grid power, insulating ratepayers but shifting investment risk onto operators, alongside comments from President Trump favouring data centres paying the full cost of their own utilities.

Labour shortages are an industry-wide constraint, not just a data centre problem

Shortages of electricians and fibre construction crews, worsened by Buy America rules and shifting tariffs, are pushing up CPE and fibre equipment costs. Lipman noted federal training funds are available, potentially including a BEAD 2.0 allocation, and flagged the continued importance of bringing more women and minorities into the broadband workforce.

The macro backdrop remains favourable, for now

Inflation and interest rates are holding broadly steady, tax treatment remains supportive through bonus depreciation and R&D credits, and Lipman described the antitrust and regulatory climate as favourable, with the FCC and the Trump administration seeking to ease environmental and permitting obstacles.

M&A optimism is building, with SpaceX as a wildcard

M&A and Metro Connect “go together like brisket and baked beans,” Lipman said, asking whether deals once thought unthinkable, comparable to the AT&T/Southwest Bell merger, could resurface given two more years of the Trump administration, tempered by a bench of Democratic state attorneys general. He flagged SpaceX’s potential to disrupt sector M&A both offensively and defensively, expects a pickup in tower leasing, and posed an open question on whether the sector moves toward greater vertical integration or further dis-integration, name-checking Houston-based Crown Castle.

Fibre consolidation is coming, and BEAD 2.0 will lean mid-mile

Fibre remains the preferred BEAD technology, accounting for 65% of locations and 85% of dollars, and Lipman does not expect a Treasury clawback of unspent funds. He expects the bulk of BEAD 2.0 funding to target mid-mile and long-haul connectivity. For operators that have already won awards, the harder work is only starting, a theme Capacity has covered in detail: sub-grant recipients now face buildout, procurement and permitting obligations that will shape which of them still exist to consolidate. Lipman expects significant fibre consolidation in 2027, particularly among subscale operators, alongside continued ABS securitisation activity.

Fibre-to-the-home stays hot, but access gaps remain wide

More than 10 million fibre builds and upgrades are expected in 2026, matched or exceeded in 2027, in a market Lipman values at $125bn in the US. Still, nearly 65% of US households lack fibre access. He pointed to Metro Fiber as a strong performer this year, driven by AI and neocloud demand, citing Zayo and Nvidia as an example of that wave of buyers.

Lipman closed on what he called a more positive note: how large the AI opportunity remains for every part of broadband deployment. Six months after his last countdown at Metro Connect USA, the throughline hasn’t changed, AI demand keeps compounding faster than the grid, the workforce or, increasingly, the politics can absorb it.

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