Locator: 49189B.
The NDIC modules that are most important to me are either not working or are so slow to make them worthless.
If you are interested in the Bakken, you will have to find another site.
For now, I'll be blogging on the other subjects that interest me.
Locator: 49188B.
Bullet Train: Trump re-directs $2.4 billion previously meant for California's "bullet train" to other transportation projects around the country. Link here.
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Back to the Bakken
The "Daily Activity Report" is still "down." Data was provided by a reader, thank you very much. Nothing in today's daily activity report except two new Petro-Hunt permits.
WTI: $62.64. Link here.
Active rigs: 34.
Two new permits, #42328 and #42329:
Locator: 49187CLOUDS.
Tag: Nvidia, Oracle, Google, Amazon, cloud services.
Neoclouds:
Locator: 49186META.
My wife absolutely loves her new MacBook Air M4. She cannot believe how fast it is.
My wife used to wear an Apple Watch, but no longer. Various reasons.
Meta glasses. On my wife? LOL. Not gonna happen.
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The Motley Fool On
That Nvidia-Intel Partnership
The Motley Fool was addressing the question: who benefits more from Nvidia's $5 billion stake in Intel.
Last paragraph, "who's the big winner?"
The deal means much more to Intel than Nvidia, and it could make the difference between Intel continuing to fall behind in AI or regaining its footing, returning to solid growth and profitability.
While the deal looks like a smart move for Nvidia, it doesn't quite pack the same punch as it does for Intel. Partnering with Nvidia, along with the $5 billion cash infusion, could be a game-changer for Intel.
A reminder. What was the deal all about?
The chip giants announced Thursday that Nvidia would invest $5 billion in Intel at a share price of $23.28.
A part of the deal, the two companies will partner on a range of products across the data center and PCs. They will connect architectures through Nvidia NVLink, Nvidia's high-speed interconnect for CPU and GPU processors, combining Nvidia's strength in AI and accelerated computing with Intel's CPUs and x86 architecture.
Additionally, Intel is planning to build custom x86 CPUs that Nvidia will put into AI infrastructure platforms in data centers. In PCs, Intel plans to build x86 system-on-chips to integrate with Nvidia RTX GPU chiplets, going into a wide range of PCs.
The partnership does not include Intel's foundry division.
Locator: 49185MMF.
Tag: MMF, MMFs, money market funds,
Locator: 49184AI.
Tag: Oracle.
Updates
Later, 2:36 p.m. CT: why is Oracle in the mix? Why was Oracle mentioned so often by the OpenAI guys? Beth has the answer. Link here.
Original Post
Not ready for prime time. Will be cleaned up / full story later.
10GW of power. Additive to everything previously announced.
This is bigger than the Manhattan Project in dollars, maybe not in vision or technology.
Nividia: $100B into OpenAI.
Biggest infrastructure project in history.
Sam Altman: "this is the fuel we need." Mentioned three other companies -- two of them: MSFT and ORCL. "We didn't set our sights high enough." So, it's Open AI, Microsoft, and Nvidia as primaries. Oracle in the mix.
SoFi also mentioned. Stargate.
Remember, Google increased their number of H-1B visas from 900 in 2024 (last year) to 6,000 this year. Numbers rounded.
Greg Brockman: OpenAI president.
Co-founders of OpenAI: Greg Brockman (president) and Sam Altman (CEO).
Not sure why Microsoft is not on the stage, and not sure why MSFT share price is down today.
Wow, wow, wow: CNBC threw a turd into the punch bowl. CNBC asked about Apple and Edge. Oh, oh! Got Sam Altman's attention.
Apple is Edge.
Sam Altman is Cloud.
But, Sam Altman -- ARM -- was generous -- said there will be room for both Edge and Cloud. But a lot of folks aren't going to like that.
Again, not ready for prime time.
CNBC brought the H-1B visa question to the table. Platitudes.
Really, really impressed with the interviewer. Jon Fortt.
AMZN: one of the few tech stocks "down" today. Although other factors may be at play, my hunch almost of this has to do with the "H-1B Visa" story.
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Disclaimer
Brief
Reminder
Briefly:
Locator: 49184MMF.
I can't remember if I shared the story only with some readers via e-mail or if I posted it on the blog. Doesn't matter. This is exactly what I said.
Ah, yes. Here it is. My very, very prescient blog on MMFs and this "wall of cash." Link here.
Locator: 49183AMZN.
All of this needs to be fact-checked. I've done this quickly. Much to unravel here.
Which American company has the most H-1B visas .... by a huge amount. A huge amount? Amazon.
Currently:
For the 2025 fiscal year, Amazon has the most H-1B visa approvals, followed by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Microsoft, Meta Platforms, and Apple. Other major tech and professional services companies rounding out the top ten include Google, Cognizant, JPMorgan Chase, Deloitte, and Walmart.
Most interesting: one may want to see the jump from 2024 to 2025. Did Amazon see this coming? Link here. Actually, it's even more interesting to look at Google. Google apparently had 856 H-1B visas in 2024; this year, before the executive order was signed, Google had almost 6,000 H-1B visas.
Next question to ask: why did Google's number of H-1B visas jump from 800 to 5,000 in one year. There are only two possible answers. LOL.
I have believing those numbers, that the number of H-1B visas Amazon had in 2024 was less than 4,000 and, now, one year later, over 10,000.
But, if the numbers are correct, it's hard to believe that Amazon grew that fast, or re-positioned their workers that fast.
And, having said all that, who really benefits? India. We'll connect the dots later if necessary.
Locator: 49182AAPL.
See disclaimer.
Holy mackerel: AAPL was up $4.50 at the open and before mid-morning AAPL is up over $7.00:
Yes, what Apple is doing is evolutionary. But it's hard not to call it revolutionary.
If I understand it correctly what Apple is already delivering is what Nvidia is trying to do with CUDA. Nvidia has partnered with Intel's x86 to accomplish this but it won't be ready until 2027 or 2028.
My wife just got her first M4 laptop. She was blown away by how fast it was, especially when using Touch ID.
The Apple M4 chip is in every new MacBook laptop: an SoC chip, integrated, made by one company; think about it, the M4 Pro:
Apple Silicon wiki here.
Apple M4: Apple's top laptop chip:
AAPL: Dan Ives raises raises Apple's target to $310. Link here. We've been here before. In December, 2024, Ives had AAPl at $340, with path toward $5 trillion.
BofA this morning: sounds reserved on Apple's sales over the weekend but admits it appears Apple iPhone 17 sales higher than expected. T-Mobile CEO says iPhone sales at record sales. Biggest weekend ever?
At the opening: AAPL is up 4.8%; up $4.43.
Opening ticker:
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Disclaimer
Brief
Reminder
Briefly:
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Lumen
Nvidia: Jensen Huang is not through buying; he just spent $900
million (~ $1 billion) to hire Enfabrica CEO, license AI startup's
technology; link here.
Locator: 49181LDC.
RBN Energy: Meta's massive data center development puts focus on Louisiana. Archived.
Data center mania is sweeping across the U.S., grabbing headlines and spurring investor interest. It has now reached Louisiana, where Meta is building one of the largest developments in the Western Hemisphere. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll look at two gigantic projects planned for Louisiana, the early challenges the Bayou State faced in luring developers, and why it may now be a strong contender to emerge as a major Southern data center hub after a relatively slow start.
First, a quick refresher. As we discussed in God Blessed Texas, the Lone Star State is easily one of the nation’s leaders for data centers, with only Virginia edging it out in both data center counts and associated power demand. Texas hosts more than 350 data centers, far more than the two dozen or so operating in its neighbor to the east, but Louisiana has two hyperscale projects being built that are generating plenty of attention because of the size and capital involved.
The $10 billion site being constructed by Meta in Richland Parish (more on this below) in northern Louisiana is slated to consume about as much power as the city of San Diego (though the city’s peak loads can be higher) and could boost the state’s electricity consumption by an eye-opening 15%.
Louisiana hasn’t always been on the radar for giant data center projects. It has historically lagged behind states like Texas because it lacked the basic infrastructure to lure those projects. The Dallas-Fort Worth area, a prime location for data center development (see Where You Lead I Will Follow), has benefited for years from a dense fiber-optic backbone and fast internet speeds (we’ll discuss this in further detail in a future blog), while Louisiana’s broadband network has ranked in the lower third nationally, without the speed or reach of many other states. Louisiana also didn’t offer many tax incentives to data center firms. Major tech firms want reliable fiber, steady power and business incentives. Without those, Louisiana wasn’t seen as especially attractive to data center developers.
Louisiana lawmakers made big changes to close the state’s broadband gap and quickly ramped up incentives to bring in Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. In 2024, the state received more than $1.3 billion in federal broadband funding to deliver high-speed internet statewide. State legislators also passed Act 730 (HB 827) in June 2024, which established generous sales tax rebates for data center equipment. That law paved the way for more tax incentives, including property tax abatements and payroll credits, all designed to attract data center projects. The process was fast-tracked, and lawmakers crafted legislation in a single session to seal the Meta deal. Those efforts gave Louisiana a compelling package for Meta to build in Richland Parish, including tax rebates on the billions of dollars it is spending on data center equipment.
It's very likely that with these changes, Louisiana is setting itself up to host more data centers.
As we discussed recently in Won’t Get Fooled Again, we’ve been grappling with the challenges of tracking and ranking data center projects in Texas and Louisiana, in part to help us better assess their impact on power and gas demand in Gulf Coast gas markets, as tracked in our proprietary Arrow Model. In that blog, we explained that we’re using a scoring system that assigns each project a score from 1 to 3 based on public information. A project ranks as a 1 if it has an offtaker, a 2 if it also controls the site, and a 3 if construction is underway. Projects missing these criteria don’t make it into our detailed forecasts.
The Arrow Model carves up the region into pipeline “corridors” (aka arrows) that are used to determine changes in the region’s inflows, outflows and flows within each state via groups of pipes that serve similar markets from comparable supply sources. Data centers have been emerging as an important data input in the model because it’s likely their ongoing development will result in significant bump-ups in power and gas demand in various parts of Texas and Louisiana.
Next, we’re going to dive into two major projects under development in Louisiana.
Figure 1. Proposed LouisianaData Centers. Source: RBN
Of note, Lumen Technologies is also headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana. As I said earlier, I don't believe in coincidences. LOL. From AI overview:
**********************
Lumen
Nvidia: Jensen Huang is not through buying; he just spent $900
million (~ $1 billion) to hire Enfabrica CEO, license AI startup's
technology; link here.
**********************************
Disclaimer
Brief
Reminder
Briefly:
Cowboys: Dak Prescott benched after critical interception that ended the game for the Cowboys against the Bears. At the "fourth and goal." At 31 - 14 with only five minutes left in the fourth quarter didn't really affect the game but ... Dak was benched. One link here.
AAPL: Dan Ives raises raises Apple's target to $310. We've been here before. In December, 2024, Ives had AAPl at $340, with path toward $5 trillion.
BofA this morning: sounds reserved on Apple's sales over the weekend but admits it appears Apple iPhone 17 sales higher than expected. T-Mobile CEO says iPhone sales at record sales. Biggest weekend ever?
At the opening: AAPL is up 4.8%; up $4.43.
Fed reminder: Jerome Powell was the Federal Reserve chairman when Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) failed in March 2023.
Senator Elizabeth Warren and the Federal Reserve itself criticized his leadership and the bank's risk management, which contributed to the collapse of SVB and Signature Bank. The Federal Reserve later released a report acknowledging some fault in its supervision of the bank and outlining recommendations for a more resilient banking system.
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Back to the Bakken
WTI: $62.03.
New wells:
RBN Energy: Meta's massive data center development puts focus on Louisiana.
Data center mania is sweeping across the U.S., grabbing headlines and spurring investor interest. It has now reached Louisiana, where Meta is building one of the largest developments in the Western Hemisphere. In today’s RBN blog, we’ll look at two gigantic projects planned for Louisiana, the early challenges the Bayou State faced in luring developers, and why it may now be a strong contender to emerge as a major Southern data center hub after a relatively slow start.
First, a quick refresher. As we discussed in God Blessed Texas, the Lone Star State is easily one of the nation’s leaders for data centers, with only Virginia edging it out in both data center counts and associated power demand. Texas hosts more than 350 data centers, far more than the two dozen or so operating in its neighbor to the east, but Louisiana has two hyperscale projects being built that are generating plenty of attention because of the size and capital involved.
The $10 billion site being constructed by Meta in Richland Parish (more on this below) in northern Louisiana is slated to consume about as much power as the city of San Diego (though the city’s peak loads can be higher) and could boost the state’s electricity consumption by an eye-opening 15%.
Louisiana hasn’t always been on the radar for giant data center projects. It has historically lagged behind states like Texas because it lacked the basic infrastructure to lure those projects. The Dallas-Fort Worth area, a prime location for data center development (see Where You Lead I Will Follow), has benefited for years from a dense fiber-optic backbone and fast internet speeds (we’ll discuss this in further detail in a future blog), while Louisiana’s broadband network has ranked in the lower third nationally, without the speed or reach of many other states. Louisiana also didn’t offer many tax incentives to data center firms. Major tech firms want reliable fiber, steady power and business incentives. Without those, Louisiana wasn’t seen as especially attractive to data center developers.
Louisiana lawmakers made big changes to close the state’s broadband gap and quickly ramped up incentives to bring in Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. In 2024, the state received more than $1.3 billion in federal broadband funding to deliver high-speed internet statewide. State legislators also passed Act 730 (HB 827) in June 2024, which established generous sales tax rebates for data center equipment. That law paved the way for more tax incentives, including property tax abatements and payroll credits, all designed to attract data center projects. The process was fast-tracked, and lawmakers crafted legislation in a single session to seal the Meta deal. Those efforts gave Louisiana a compelling package for Meta to build in Richland Parish, including tax rebates on the billions of dollars it is spending on data center equipment.
It's very likely that with these changes, Louisiana is setting itself up to host more data centers.
As we discussed recently in Won’t Get Fooled Again, we’ve been grappling with the challenges of tracking and ranking data center projects in Texas and Louisiana, in part to help us better assess their impact on power and gas demand in Gulf Coast gas markets, as tracked in our proprietary Arrow Model. In that blog, we explained that we’re using a scoring system that assigns each project a score from 1 to 3 based on public information. A project ranks as a 1 if it has an offtaker, a 2 if it also controls the site, and a 3 if construction is underway. Projects missing these criteria don’t make it into our detailed forecasts.
The Arrow Model carves up the region into pipeline “corridors” (aka arrows) that are used to determine changes in the region’s inflows, outflows and flows within each state via groups of pipes that serve similar markets from comparable supply sources. Data centers have been emerging as an important data input in the model because it’s likely their ongoing development will result in significant bump-ups in power and gas demand in various parts of Texas and Louisiana.
Next, we’re going to dive into two major projects under development in Louisiana.
Figure 1. Proposed LouisianaData Centers. Source: RBN
Of note, Lumen Technologies is also headquartered in Monroe, Louisiana. As I said earlier, I don't believe in coincidences. LOL. From AI overview:
