Great thought piece to help you wrap up the year and look ahead to 2026.

Power is no longer just one chapter of the energy transition; it has become a strategic constraint on nationwide economic growth. Another year-end article worth your time.

Suddenly the constraints were no longer GPUs or algorithms. They were power plants, substations, land assemblies, water rights, transmission queues, zoning hearings, and permitting timelines. The bottleneck moved from silicon to soil.

Just before the holidays, NVIDIA's CEO held an invitation-only summit for about 100 leaders to talk about how to tackle the power challenges for data centers. Hat tip to Anissa Gardizy from The Information for some great reporting on the topic.

“Intersect will help us expand capacity, operate more nimbly in building new power generation in lockstep with new data center load, and reimagine energy solutions to drive US innovation and leadership,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet.

A 48-inch diameter pipe will be used in the construction of the Transwestern Desert Southwest pipeline instead of the 42-inch pipe previously announced in August, Energy Transfer said in a statement.

New Era Energy & Digital Inc has secured a deal to buy Sharon AI Inc's 50 percent stake in their equally owned Texas Critical Data Centers (TCDC) project, an under-development power and artificial intelligence data center project in Ector County.

Governor Abbott said “By creating the Texas Advanced Nuclear Energy Office and investing $350 million–the largest national commitment--we will jumpstart next-generation nuclear development and deployment.”

This is the year AI infrastructure stopped behaving like software and started behaving like real estate. Hyperscale strategies assume one thing above all else. That scale is always an advantage. On paper, it is. Centralizing compute lowers unit costs, simplifies operations, and concentrates talent. In practice, hyperscale has collided head on with physical limits.

David Blackmon provides insights on the bill which will, if passed by the Senate in its current form, constitute a very good start towards the ultimate goal expeditious development of major energy-related development projects.

The next generation of returns in data centers will not accrue to the loudest promoters or the biggest announcements. They will accrue to developers who think like infrastructure strategists. People who understand that entitlement is capital. That power is politics. That community trust is a development asset. That friction is not an obstacle but a filter. The market is not punishing growth. It is rewarding execution.

Recently-embattled Midland company issues second rebuttal to challenging articles in as many weeks.