Follow the Abbott Money
Texas is becoming the perfect private-capital ecosystem.
Hundreds of billions of dollars sit in Texas public pensions and university investment funds. Private equity and private credit are expanding rapidly. AI data centers are consuming extraordinary amounts of electricity, water, land and infrastructure. Energy companies stand to make fortunes supplying them.
And now Apollo Global Management is moving a major strategic hub to Austin.
Governor Greg Abbott welcomed Apollo with open arms despite their clear links to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal.
That would be interesting enough.
But follow the money.
Some of Abbott’s largest political donors are simultaneously major players in energy, real estate, infrastructure, technology and the Texas data-center boom.
Some have received Abbott appointments.
Some have direct relationships with Texas public investment funds.
Some have both.
It shows why Texas desperately needs transparency about the intersection of campaign contributions, gubernatorial appointments, pension investments and the data-center gold rush.
Abbott’s Million-Dollar Club
Abbott doesn’t raise political money in ordinary amounts.
Transparency USA reports approximately $71.4 million in contributions during the 2026 election cycle and $67.5 million cash on hand.
Among the biggest contributors:
S. Javaid Anwar — $3.37 million
The Permian Basin oil executive was previously identified by the Texas Tribune as Abbott’s largest overall donor. Abbott appointed Anwar to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
Edward Roski Jr. — $2 million
Roski is chairman of Majestic Realty.
Majestic senior executive Jim Fonteno has an interesting résumé: former trustee of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas and former chairman of the TRS Investment Committee.
Kelcy Warren — $1.50 million this cycle
Warren controls Energy Transfer, one of America’s largest pipeline companies.
The Texas Tribune previously calculated Warren had already given Abbott approximately $2.9 million by 2022.
Abbott also appointed Warren to the University of Texas System Board of Regents.
And Texas public investment funds have invested in Energy Transfer securities.
Joe Gebbia — $1.5 million
The Airbnb co-founder is another Abbott megadonor. Texas TRS reported owning 93,405 Airbnb shares in February 2026.
Kenneth Fisher — more than $1 million
Fisher Investments previously managed approximately $350 million for the Employees Retirement System of Texas before ERS terminated the mandate in 2019.
Elon Musk — $500,000
Texas TRS reported owning 783,916 Tesla shares in February 2026.
But the private-market and governance connections deserve considerably more scrutiny.
Kelcy Warren: Exhibit A
If you want to understand the Texas ecosystem, start with Kelcy Warren.
Warren is a huge Abbott donor.
Abbott appointed him to the UT Board of Regents.
Warren controls Energy Transfer.
Texas public investment funds have invested in Energy Transfer.
And now the AI data-center boom promises potentially enormous additional demand for natural gas and energy infrastructure.
This is not some hypothetical future industry.
Texas’ proposed electric-grid connections reached an astonishing 474 gigawatts this summer.
Approximately 90% was associated with data centers.
That is more than five times Texas’ record peak electricity demand.
Only after the boom reached those proportions did Abbott order regulators to pause most new approvals while conducting an audit.
Energy Transfer and other pipeline companies could be enormous beneficiaries if Texas attempts to satisfy even a fraction of that demand with new gas-fired generation.
Again, that doesn’t establish that Warren bought Abbott.
It establishes something more useful:
The financial interests of some enormous Abbott donors overlap directly with policies controlled or influenced by Texas government.
Ray Hunt: Follow the Pension Money
The Hunt connection may be even more interesting from a pension perspective.
The Hunt family has been a significant Abbott donor.
Hunt Energy is positioned in the energy and power-infrastructure economy.
But Hunt also had a direct commercial relationship with Texas TRS.
Hunt Realty and TRS created the Akard Street real-estate investment platform.
TRS ultimately took control of the platform.
That isn’t a passive S&P 500 investment.
It is the kind of direct institutional relationship pension trustees should disclose alongside political relationships.
Private Equity Moves Onto the Pension Board
Then Abbott made a particularly revealing appointment.
In June 2026, Abbott appointed Dan West to the Teacher Retirement System of Texas Board of Trustees.
West’s occupation?
Private equity.
He is an investor at SCF Partners, which specializes in energy services, equipment and technology.
So while Texas TRS pours billions into private markets, Abbott has placed a professional private-equity investor on the board overseeing teachers’ retirement assets.
Again, private-equity experience can be useful.
But who represents the skeptical side of the table?
Who asks whether private equity actually beat public markets after fees?
Who challenges GP valuations?
Who questions carried interest?
Who demands the LPAs and side letters?
Who asks whether the consultant recommending another private-equity allocation has conflicts?
Texas appears much better at bringing Wall Street into the pension boardroom than bringing Wall Street skeptics into it.
And Then Apollo Arrives
Now add Apollo.
Texas TRS has already been a major Apollo investor, including a reported $400 million commitment to Apollo Investment Fund X.
Then, on August 3, Governor Abbott announced that Apollo was establishing a major strategic hub in Austin.
Abbott proclaimed:
“Texas is the new financial capital of America.”
He may be right.
But Austin is also becoming America’s public-pension/private-equity capital.
Apollo will be surrounded by enormous pools of public institutional capital:
Teacher Retirement System of Texas
Employees Retirement System of Texas
Texas Municipal Retirement System
Texas County & District Retirement System
UTIMCO
Collectively, these institutions oversee hundreds of billions of dollars.
For Apollo, Blackstone, KKR, Ares and the rest of the private-market industry, Austin is increasingly where the money is.
The Data-Center Money Trail
Now connect Wall Street to the data-center boom.
Abbott’s current donor records include:
Edward Roski / Majestic Realty — $2 million
Kelcy Warren / Energy Transfer — $1.5 million
Black Mountain Power — $500,000
Black Mountain founder John Bennett — $500,000
Elon Musk — $500,000
And that is before adding major Abbott donors associated with natural gas, electric transmission, oil, real estate and infrastructure.
Texas created enormous incentives for data centers.
Private capital rushed in.
Data centers demanded enormous amounts of electricity.
Energy and infrastructure companies stood to benefit.
Then proposed electricity demand exploded to 474 GW.
Suddenly Abbott discovered that Texas might have a problem.
In August he ordered a comprehensive audit and effectively paused many new grid connections.
Good.
But where was the audit before the gold rush?
Abbott’s Appointment Machine
There is a larger governance problem here.
The Texas Tribune conducted an extraordinary analysis of Abbott’s university appointments.
It found that more than 70% of Abbott’s appointees to the state’s university-system boards had contributed to Abbott.
Approximately 30% had contributed more than $100,000.
Among them was Kelcy Warren.
This doesn’t prove that Abbott sells appointments.
Abbott denies contributions determine appointments.
But when governors can accept unlimited six- and seven-figure political contributions from wealthy business executives and then appoint some of those same executives to powerful public boards, the appearance problem is obvious.
Add public pension money and private equity and the stakes become much larger.
What is missing is the cross-match.
Texas retirees should be able to type “Kelcy Warren,” “Apollo,” “Black Mountain,” “Majestic,” “Hunt,” “Blackstone” or “KKR” into one database and see:
How much did they give Texas politicians?
Who appointed whom?
How much pension money do they manage?
What fees are they collecting?
What Texas projects do they own?
What tax breaks did they receive?
And what infrastructure are Texas ratepayers being asked to finance?
That is not accusing anyone of a crime.
That is basic public accountability.
Texas has assembled almost every ingredient necessary for a private-capital feeding frenzy:
Political money.
Pension money.
Private equity.
Private credit.
Cheap land.
Natural gas.
Tax incentives.
Data centers.
And politicians eager to proclaim Texas open for business.
Apollo’s move to Austin isn’t the story.
Apollo’s move is the symbol of the story.
Texas is rapidly becoming America’s private-capital capital.
Before Wall Street gets any more Texas pension money, electricity, water or tax subsidies, somebody needs to follow the money.
Appendix — Follow the Abbott Money
The current-cycle contribution figures below come from Transparency USA’s 2026 Abbott records, which report roughly $71.4 million in total contributions.
| Abbott contributor | 2026-cycle giving identified | Business | Key connection |
| S. Javaid Anwar | $3.37M | Midland Energy | Oil & gas; Abbott appointee; Tribune previously identified him as Abbott’s top overall donor |
| Edward Roski Jr. | $2.00M | Majestic Realty | Data-center/industrial real estate; Majestic executive Jim Fonteno formerly TRS trustee & Investment Committee chair |
| William Doggett | $1.59M | Doggett Equipment | Heavy equipment/infrastructure |
| Kelcy Warren | $1.50M | Energy Transfer | Gas/pipelines; former Abbott-appointed UT Regent; Texas public-investment exposure to Energy Transfer |
| Joe Gebbia | $1.50M | Airbnb co-founder | TRS held 93,405 Airbnb shares |
| Bobby Cox | $1.19M | Bobby Cox Companies | Texas business/real estate |
| Kenneth Fisher | $1M+ | Fisher Investments | Former ~$350M Texas ERS investment-management mandate |
| Elon Musk | $500K | Tesla/SpaceX | AI/compute; TRS held 783,916 Tesla shares |
| Black Mountain Power LLC | $500K | Black Mountain | Direct Texas data-center/power-development connection |
| John Bennett | $500K | Black Mountain | Founder/CEO; direct data-center connection |
The Abbott appointment pattern is independently significant. The Texas Tribune found that more than 70% of Abbott’s university-system appointees were donors, with roughly 30% giving more than $100,000. It specifically identified Warren at $2.9 million historically and Anwar at more than $6.2 million at the time of its 2022 analysis.
Appendix B — The Strongest Pension Cross-Matches
| Name / firm | Political connection | Public-capital connection | Significance |
| Kelcy Warren / Energy Transfer | Major Abbott donor; Abbott-appointed UT Regent | Texas public funds have held Energy Transfer securities | A — donor + appointment + public capital + data-center energy |
| Ray Hunt / Hunt Realty | Abbott donor family | Direct Akard Street real-estate relationship with TRS | A — direct pension commercial relationship |
| Edward Roski / Majestic | $2M current-cycle Abbott donor | Majestic executive formerly TRS trustee and Investment Committee chair | A — revolving-door/governance connection |
| Kenneth Fisher | $1M+ Abbott donor | Fisher Investments formerly managed ~$350M for ERS | A — direct asset-manager relationship |
| Dan West / SCF Partners | Abbott appointee | Abbott appointed PE professional to TRS board in June 2026 | A — PE directly inside pension governance |
| Apollo | Abbott publicly welcomed Austin expansion | TRS has committed substantial capital to Apollo, including reported $400M Fund X commitment | A — major PE/pension relationship |
| Elon Musk / Tesla | $500K Abbott donor | TRS owns 783,916 Tesla shares | B — direct but ordinary public-market investment |
| Joe Gebbia / Airbnb | $1.5M Abbott donor | TRS owns 93,405 Airbnb shares | B — direct but ordinary public-market investment |
Appendix C — The Data-Center/Power Network
Texas’ situation has become extreme enough that Abbott ordered a new audit last week. ERCOT had approximately 474 GW of proposed new demand, about 90% associated with data centers and more than five times Texas’ peak load.
| Abbott donor / interest | $ identified | Potential Texas boom exposure |
| Roski / Majestic | $2.0M | Data-center/industrial real estate |
| Warren / Energy Transfer | $1.5M current cycle | Natural-gas pipelines and power-generation fuel |
| Black Mountain Power | $500K | Power/data-center development |
| John Bennett / Black Mountain | $500K | Data-center development |
| Musk | $500K | AI, computing, electricity-intensive infrastructure |
| Hunt interests | Significant Abbott donor | Power, energy, real estate |
| Kinder interests | Abbott donor | Natural-gas pipeline infrastructure |
| Oncor-linked interests | Abbott donor | Electric transmission/distribution |
| Hilcorp-linked interests | Abbott donor | Oil and natural gas |
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