Google, Blackstone To Create New AI Cloud Company -- May 18, 2026

Locator: 50835GOOG.

"You can howl at the wind, but AI is not going away." -- Amazon CEO Andy Jesse. 

Link here. 

 From the linked article:

Alphabet’s Google and Blackstone plan to create an artificial-intelligence cloud company to rival the likes of CoreWeave using Google’s specialized chips, according to people familiar with the matter.

The duo plans to launch the unnamed U.S. company with $5 billion in equity capital from Blackstone, which will be the majority owner, the people said. The deal is set to be announced later Monday. 

The venture, the biggest attempt yet by Google to sell and monetize its own chips to external parties, will sharpen a rivalry with Nvidia, the market leader in AI computing.

The new company aims in 2027 to bring 500 megawatts of capacity online—roughly the same amount of electric power required to serve a midsize city—and substantially increase capacity over time, the people familiar with the matter said.

The companies are forming the venture as demand for computing power to train and run advanced AI models reaches unprecedented levels. Most of the major AI companies currently rely, at least in part, on computing infrastructure from CoreWeave, which uses Nvidia’s chips. A class of smaller so-called neocloud companies have also cropped up in response to ravenous demand.

Google last month introduced a new processor that is customized for AI inference, or the computing required to run models rather than train them. Demand for that type of processing has exploded as businesses embrace AI. Google also introduced a new version of its chips that is specially designed for training models.

Google will supply hardware—including its specialized chips known as Tensor Processing Units, or TPUs—as well as software and services to the venture, the people said. Benjamin Treynor Sloss, a longtime Google executive, will serve as the new company’s CEO.

Google and Blackstone have identified data centers that will likely be part of the venture, some of which are in the process of being built.

Industry observers have wondered for years whether Google will commercialize its TPUs for widespread use. The technology giant has signed two major deals with outsiders: one to give Claude-maker Anthropic access to about one million of its chips, and another with Facebook owner Meta Platforms.

News Corp, owner of The Wall Street Journal, has a commercial agreement to supply content on Google platforms.

Bakken End-Of-Day Report -- May 18, 2026

Locator: 50834B.

Back to the Bakken

WTI: $104.40.

Active rigs: 22. 

Five new permits, #42946 - #31950, inclusive:

• Operators: Hunt Oil Company
• Fields: Parshall (Mountrail County)
• Comments:
• Hunt Oil has permits for three Oakland wells and two Severance wells, lot 4, section 4-153-89, 
• to be sited 434 FNL and 883 / 1003 FWL.

Eight permits renewed:

• Silver Hill (5):  four Haustveit permits (Capa, Williams County); and, one Tank permit (Wheelock, Williams County);
• Lime Rock Resources (3): two Robert Sadowsky permits (Manning, Dunn County); and, one Harlan Rebsom permit Murphy Creek (Dunn County).

Monday, May 18, 2026

Locator: 50833B.

Bonds: everything points to a bull market! 

Deal: holy mackerel! NextEra Energy to buy Dominion!

WNBA: Another day, another record for Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark, who is now the WNBA's all-time leader in 20-point, 10-assist games.

Clark, who had 21 points and 10 assists on Sunday, now has 12 20-and-10 games -- in just 57 career appearances. Clark technically broke the record on Friday night in the team's overtime loss to the Washington Mystics but just for good measure, she had another big night on 5-of-10 shooting from the field in the Fever's 89-78 victory over the Seattle Storm on Sunday.  

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Back to the Bakken 

WTI: $102.90.

New wells reporting:

• Tuesday, May 19, 2026: 48 for the month, 148 for the quarter, 305 for the year, 
• 42030, conf, Kraken, Dwyer East LE 2-36-26 11H, 
• 41750, conf, KODA Resources, Stout 1301-1BH, 
• 19795, conf, Devon Energy, Johnson 150-99-34-27-1H, 
• Monday, May 18, 2026: 45 for the month, 145 for the quarter, 302 for the year, 
• 41956, conf, Kraken, Dwyer East 26-35 8H, 
• Sunday, May 17, 2026: 44 for the month, 144 for the quarter, 301 for the year, 
• 41955, conf, Kraken Dwyer East 26-35 7H, 
• 41858, conf, Devon Energy, Finn 13-25F XW 1H, 
• 41497, conf, Hess, BW-Wilson-149-99-3625H-6, 
• 41496, conf, Hess, BW-Wilson-149-99-6325H-5, 
• 41495, conf, Hess, BW-Wilson-149-99-3625H-4, 
• 41452, conf, Devon Energy, Wagenman 32-29 6H, 
• Saturday, May 16, 2026: 38 for the month, 138 for the quarter, 295 for the year, 
• 41957, conf, Kraken, McCabe 24-13 5H, 
• 41751, conf, KODA resources, Stout 1301 2BH, 

RBN Energy: after a long, steady decline, Alaska oil production is on the rise. Link here. Archived.

Last year, Alaska produced only 421 Mb/d of crude oil, barely one-fifth the more than 2 MMb/d that wells there were churning out back in 1988, when North Slope production peaked. It’s been a long, steady decline, but two new projects — one already producing and the other only weeks away from “first oil” — will add a combined 100 Mb/d once both are fully up and running. And Alaska’s biggest new project in years, ConocoPhillips’s massive Willow effort, will contribute another 180 Mb/d by 2030. In today’s RBN blog, we discuss the ongoing rebound in North Slope production and the prospects for even more growth going forward.

As we said five years ago in The End?, it’s been a challenging few decades for producers in the 49th state. Back in the 1970s and ’80s, Alaska was seen as the next big thing for U.S. crude oil production. With the 1977 completion of the 800-mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline (TAPS) from Prudhoe Bay in the north to Valdez in the south, Alaska North Slope (ANS) production took off (blue line in Figure 1 below), and just 11 years later the state not only accounted for 25% of total U.S. crude oil output, it also briefly knocked Texas off its perch as the #1 oil-producing state. Alaska crude oil production was all downhill from there, however. By 1995, it had fallen to less than 1.5 MMb/d, and by 2000, it was below 1 MMb/d. The slide didn’t end there. Through the mid-2010s, production was hovering around 500 Mb/d, and so far in the 2020s it’s been averaging less than 450 Mb/d — or just over 3% of total U.S. output.

Figure 1. Alaska Crude Oil Production. Source: EIA

 

Teres Major -- An Amazing Cut Of Meat -- Getting Ready For Summer -- May 17, 2026

Locator: 50832TERESMAJOR.

This was from 2010, link here:

A couple of readers and I have been talking about grilling teres major. The reader who brought it to my attention mentioned they had it again this week and continue to really enjoy it. Another reader, a real grill master / a Weber aficionado said he had not grilled teres major before but was always looking for something new.

He ordered teres major from Snake River Farms about a week ago, and coincidentally it arrived today:

And tonight, just moments ago, he sent this photograph and this comment: "This cut is amazing!"

Wow, is that not impressive!

In the upper midwest, your butcher may know it as chuck-eye. It comes from the shoulder (chuck) of the steer, but it's an elongated muscle that is a pain for the butcher to separate out from the rest of the shoulder, so one seldom sees it (at least based on what others have said). On a transverse cut of the chuck, the teres major looks like the eye -- or the center -- and thus chuck-eye.

At least that's my understanding. 

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A reader wrote me tonight -- 

There’s a butcher I try to get to every once in a while just to see and viola , there it is. Got lucky I guess. 

Found this earlier this week:

Wishing all a great summer of grilling!

Sunday Night: WTI Surges; Breaks Through $107 -- May 17, 2026

Locator: 50831SUNDAYNIGHT.

WTI: Its "go time" for Trump. Sunday night; Trump just back from a successful China trip. WTI surges at the open. Up 1.75%; up $1.84; opens at $107.30. Overall market continues to fall (futures). Trump has called a meeting in the "Situation Room" for Tuesday, two days from now. [Later: drops back to $106.50.]

PGA: Aaron Rai runs away from the field. Wins by three. Scottie Scheffler, T14.

Amazon (AMZN): "You can howl at the wind, but AI is not going away." -- CEO Andy Jessy over at Amazon.

MSFT: from an investment point of view, this may be the most interesting. See this link. BRK holds more MSFT than any of the other funds being tracked.

Computer choice: Verge provides options. Starts with three Apple computers. Link here. The M5 MacBook Air 15-inch, 2026, $1,149); the same, but 13-inch, $949; MacBook Neo, $599. Best price lower by $100 for verified students, educators. 

And while the MacBook Neo's A18 Pro processor is technically a smartphone chip, it’s faster than most Windows laptop chips in single-core performance — making it more than enough for everyday tasks. 

Its 8GB of RAM and relatively slow storage may feel lean for more intensive users, but the Neo performs great unless you really push it with dozens of Chrome tabs or heavier content creation apps.

Three-Mile Island: it's being reported that Unit 1 is being reopened as early as early 2027. Constellation Energy is working with FERC to see that it opens on time to provide power to Microsoft's LDCs. 

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The Book Page

I finally finished A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens. Notes here. I've now become obsessed with the book and will spend weeks studying it and discussing it with the only one that will listen to me regarding it: the chatbots. LOL.

Since I had just recently finished three books on India and now knowing the backstory to this book, I will be re-reading the history of India at the time Charles Dickens wrote this novel. 

• Indian Mutiny: Indian Rebellion of 1857 -- see wiki.
• "the events of 1857 ... have provoked more impassioned literature than any other single event in Indian history." -- p. 436 -- at the bottom.  
• connection: A Tale of Two Cities, published in 1859
• the end of the English East India Company ruling India ended
• the beginning of the British Raj 

The first thing I'll do is read A. N. Wilson's The Mystery of Charles Dickens.  Have ordered a copy from Amazon.  

Query: Charles Dickens died fairly young. What was that all about?

Reply: