Before it was called “Silicon Valley,” Santa Clara Valley was best known for producing 30% of the world’s prunes. The technology epicenter we revere today didn’t form accidentally. Leaders saw the future and bet big.

Texas is at a similar technological precipice. With OpenAI and Apple choosing to build out major artificial intelligence data centers and server manufacturing plants in our state, there’s a rare and urgent window for us to lead the next wave of tech innovation.

The key to growing Texas into a tech powerhouse lies in three fundamentals: talent, energy and infrastructure.

Let’s start with talent. Beyond capital or infrastructure, Silicon Valley amassed a concentration of visionary people. Labs and server farms can be built anywhere, but the minds inside them hold irreplaceable value. Fortunately, a large share of that talent already calls Texas home.

In Houston, we have institutions that have pushed the boundaries of science like the Johnson Space Center. In Austin, a growing base of big tech talent is already reshaping the local economy, and Apple and OpenAI’s new facilities will only accelerate that trend. Talent growth often ebbs and flows with the market, so we must build on Texas’ long-term fundamentals to attract and retain tomorrow’s best minds.

For Texas to become an AI stronghold, state and private firms must reinvest in our tech talent pipeline at the academic level. At Texas A&M University, pioneers like NASA’s former robotics chief Dr. Robert Ambrose are fostering a new generation of “hard tech” talent bringing AI into the physical world through advanced robotics. We must aggressively expand academic programs that promote this kind of interdisciplinary innovation to build an edge that’s impossible to outsource.

Of course, AI doesn’t run on talent alone. It runs on power. As more powerful AI models come online, the infrastructure required to run and cool them becomes immense. Texas holds a natural advantage as the nation’s energy capital and, unlike Silicon Valley, we’ve got the land to support power-intensive technology.

Powering next-gen tech in Texas also means tackling grid reliability and water scarcity to ensure 24/7 operation. We can’t afford to be reactive: If we want to position ourselves as the default home for AI growth, we need to invest now in long-term, resilient infrastructure solutions.

Most importantly, Texas has a uniquely pro-business mindset, making it easy for innovators to scale quickly and take smart risks while other states tie them up in red tape.