A Rambling Thought On The Turing Machine -- October 16, 2025

Locator: 49414AI. 

I alluded to this once before.

I was reminded again when reading pages 365 and following in Alan Turing: The Enigma, Andrew Hodges, c. 1983.

China is in a world of hurt. Russia in even worse trouble. There is no question in my mind that the US intelligence services are literally decades ahead of where Russia is and years (if also not decades) where China is when it comes to Turing machines and intelligence. 

Look at the LDCs:

LDCs:

• Horizon in the Permian: 2 GW; CoreWeave and Nvidia-backed start-up, Poolside; Mitchell ranch south of Fort Stockton; announced October 16, 2025; link here.
• Meta's Richland Parish Data Center, Louisiana: link here. 
• Stargate, link here. 
• Utah Data Center, link here. Multiple US intel agencies; lead agent is the NSA, precise mission is classified. Footprint: 1.5 million square feet.
• Texas Cryptologic Center, link here. Lackland AFB, San Antonio, TX. Lead agent is the NSA. Two squadrons of the 70th Intel Wing: 543rd Support Squadron and 93rd Intelligence Squadron. About 700,000 square feet.
• Meta: as of April 16, 2025, AI says the largest data center in the US is owned by Meta Platforms, located in Prineville, Oregon. Out in the middle of nowhere, northeast of Bend, Oregon.
• Ten largest, link here, June 18, 2023, previously posted. 

Then look at the supercomputers over at wiki, and then the "TOP500," also over at wiki.

There's no way that "we're" not intercepting every signal and breaking every code.   

********************************
MOJO: The Top Twenty "Spy" Movies

In reverse order, #20 first (links are to musical vignettes associated with the music):

• Sneakers (Robert Redford)
• No Way Out (Kevin Costner)
• Argo
• Three Days of the Condor (Robert Redford)
• Bridge of Spies
• On Her Majesty's Secret Service (George Lazenby)
• The Imitation Game -- how coincidental
• The Ipcress File (Michael Caine)
• Notorious (Hitchcock)
• Mission Impossible -- Fallout 
• The Lives of Others
• The Hunt for Red October (Sean Connery)
• Skyfall
• The Manchurian Candidate
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (my favorite)
• The Spy Who Came In From The Cold
• The Bourne Identity
• From Russia With Love (Sean Connery)
• The Conversation
• North By Northwest (Hitchcock)

I can't disagree.

I could move No Way Out quite a bit farther up.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy could compete for #1, but certainly among the top five. One of the problems with this list, despite all being "spy" movies, the genres are quite eclectic. Hard to compare them against each other.

The Conversation? Simply amazing. I have to agree; I have no problem with #2; surprised MOJO caught that.  

***************************
A Musical Interlude

Link here.  

No New Permits; Permits For Five SWD Wells Canceled -- October 16, 2025

Locator: 49413B. 

Finally some adulting in the room! Link here. 

In the past few administrations / past few years, it seems "classified" was becoming ignored. It didn't begin with Hillary, of course, but when she said she didn't know what "the C" meant on her staffing papers ... well, what can I say. For those who might not know, "C" means "classified without further designation." 

This was back in 2016: link here. "There are no excuses."

**************************************
Back to the Bakken

WTI: $57.46. Inflation should be dropping like a rock. Will make it easier for the Fed to cut rates by at least a quarter point.

Active rigs: 32.

No new permits.

One permit renewed: a Minnkota carbon capture permit, #40270, NRDT 1, Oliver County.

Five permits were canceled: all SWD permits. Permitting SWD wells is a great proxy for drilling activity. This is a very, very bad omen.

With this kind of report, one can see why I'm spending more time on AI.

Horizon In The Permian -- CoreWeave And Nvidia-Backed Start-Up Poolside -- October 16, 2025

Locator: 49412HORIZON. 

Data points:

• de novo / greenfield:
• 2 GW
• $10 billion
• 4-million square feet of facility
• 2,250 acres 

LDCs:

• Horizon in the Permian: 2 GW; CoreWeave and Nvidia-backed start-up, Poolside; Mitchell ranch south of Fort Stockton; announced October 16, 2025; link here.
• Meta's Richland Parish Data Center, Louisiana: link here. 
• Stargate, link here. 
• Utah Data Center, link here. Multiple US intel agencies; lead agent is the NSA, precise mission is classified. Footprint: 1.5 million square feet.
• Texas Cryptologic Center, link here. Lackland AFB, San Antonio, TX. Lead agent is the NSA. Two squadrons of the 70th Intel Wing: 543rd Support Squadron and 93rd Intelligence Squadron. About 700,000 square feet.
• Meta: as of April 16, 2025, AI says the largest data center in the US is owned by Meta Platforms, located in Prineville, Oregon. Out in the middle of nowhere, northeast of Bend, Oregon.
• Ten largest, link here, June 18, 2023, previously posted.

Announced today.

Link here.

From the linked article: 

• 2 GW
• west Texas

A Giant New AI Data Center Is Coming to the Epicenter of America’s Fracking Boom
CoreWeave and Poolside announce partnership 
for a data center built on a sprawling ranch in West Texas

By Bradley Olson

October 15, 2025 9:06 am ET

Co-founder and CTO of Poolside, Eiso Kant, a keynote speech at the VivaTech fair.

Eiso Kant, a co-founder of Poolside, called the ability to build data centers quickly a ‘bottleneck.’ 

Poolside, a Nvidia-backed AI startup is planning to build a massive data-center complex with CoreWeave that is capable of generating its own power on a site that is two-thirds the size of Central Park. 

Poolside and CoreWeave are joining to build a new data center in West Texas. 

The Horizon project aims to deliver a data center with two gigawatts of computing power, with CoreWeave as the anchor tenant. 

The data center will be built on over 500 acres of the Mitchell family’s ranch, with completion expected in the first quarter of 2027. 

Poolside is joining with the cloud-infrastructure provider on a plan to build a data center on more than 500 acres of land that sits on a sprawling ranch in West Texas. The site is owned by the Mitchell family, which has run oil-and-gas companies for decades in the state and is located in the heart of the fracking boom.

Poolside and CoreWeave aim to take advantage of natural gas produced in the Permian Basin, the epicenter of U.S. drilling activity. They are betting that the proximity to natural-gas resources could reduce costs and improve the long-term viability of the data center, as many planned facilities across the U.S. have been built without power generation capabilities.

The project, called Horizon, represents a new model for building and financing AI-related computing expansions. In the near term, Poolside will gain access to a cluster of Nvidia AI computing resources provided by CoreWeave beginning in December. It plans to work with the company longer term on the broader build-out of a data center with two gigawatts of computing firepower, the electric-generation capacity of the Hoover Dam.

Poolside is in the midst of a $2 billion fundraising round that would value the company at $14 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. It raised $500 million about a year ago at a $3 billion valuation. The coding-focused startup, which counts chip giant Nvidia among its investors, is one of several technology companies and incumbents seeking to build AI systems with humanlike intelligence.

The scarcity of computing resources is emerging as a central bottleneck in the multitrillion-dollar AI arms race, with OpenAI and other companies announcing a dizzying array of data-center deals as they seek to maintain an edge.

While many operators moved quickly to secure continued access to the chips needed to build and operate AI models, America doesn’t have enough data centers to accommodate the high demand for space. It is also far from certain whether many data centers will have sufficient power and water to operate without becoming a significant strain on local resources.

“It is not about your headline numbers of gigawatts. It’s about your ability to deliver data centers,” Eiso Kant, a co-founder of Poolside, said in an interview. The ability to build data centers quickly is “the real physical bottleneck in our industry,” he said.

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has raced to build massive data centers in the Deep South. 

OpenAI recently announced a flurry of new data-center projects and said it envisions a need for more than 20 gigawatts of computing capacity to meet the explosive demand for ChatGPT. Think Stargate.

The Ranch:

More AI -- More AI In The Permian -- October 16, 2025

Locator: 49411AI. 

 Is it just me, or does it seem that the only real action right now is in "tech," and specifically, AI? In Texas?

The Wall Street Journal: today -- link here. 

Link here.

From the linked article: 

• 2 GW
• west Texas

A Giant New AI Data Center Is Coming to the Epicenter of America’s Fracking Boom
CoreWeave and Poolside announce partnership 
for a data center built on a sprawling ranch in West Texas

By Bradley Olson

October 15, 2025 9:06 am ET

Co-founder and CTO of Poolside, Eiso Kant, a keynote speech at the VivaTech fair.

Eiso Kant, a co-founder of Poolside, called the ability to build data centers quickly a ‘bottleneck.’ 

Poolside, a Nvidia-backed AI startup is planning to build a massive data-center complex with CoreWeave that is capable of generating its own power on a site that is two-thirds the size of Central Park. 

Poolside and CoreWeave are joining to build a new data center in West Texas. 

The Horizon project aims to deliver a data center with two gigawatts of computing power, with CoreWeave as the anchor tenant. 

The data center will be built on over 500 acres of the Mitchell family’s ranch, with completion expected in the first quarter of 2027. 

Poolside is joining with the cloud-infrastructure provider on a plan to build a data center on more than 500 acres of land that sits on a sprawling ranch in West Texas. The site is owned by the Mitchell family, which has run oil-and-gas companies for decades in the state and is located in the heart of the fracking boom.

Poolside and CoreWeave aim to take advantage of natural gas produced in the Permian Basin, the epicenter of U.S. drilling activity. They are betting that the proximity to natural-gas resources could reduce costs and improve the long-term viability of the data center, as many planned facilities across the U.S. have been built without power generation capabilities.

The project, called Horizon, represents a new model for building and financing AI-related computing expansions. In the near term, Poolside will gain access to a cluster of Nvidia AI computing resources provided by CoreWeave beginning in December. It plans to work with the company longer term on the broader build-out of a data center with two gigawatts of computing firepower, the electric-generation capacity of the Hoover Dam.

Poolside is in the midst of a $2 billion fundraising round that would value the company at $14 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. It raised $500 million about a year ago at a $3 billion valuation. The coding-focused startup, which counts chip giant Nvidia among its investors, is one of several technology companies and incumbents seeking to build AI systems with humanlike intelligence.

The scarcity of computing resources is emerging as a central bottleneck in the multitrillion-dollar AI arms race, with OpenAI and other companies announcing a dizzying array of data-center deals as they seek to maintain an edge.

While many operators moved quickly to secure continued access to the chips needed to build and operate AI models, America doesn’t have enough data centers to accommodate the high demand for space. It is also far from certain whether many data centers will have sufficient power and water to operate without becoming a significant strain on local resources.

“It is not about your headline numbers of gigawatts. It’s about your ability to deliver data centers,” Eiso Kant, a co-founder of Poolside, said in an interview. The ability to build data centers quickly is “the real physical bottleneck in our industry,” he said.

Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, xAI, has raced to build massive data centers in the Deep South. 

OpenAI recently announced a flurry of new data-center projects and said it envisions a need for more than 20 gigawatts of computing capacity to meet the explosive demand for ChatGPT. Think Stargate.

The Ranch:

This is going to require:

• a lot earth moving (CAT);
• a lot of copper (SCCO);
• a lot of fiberoptic cable (GLW).
• a lot of wiring (CSCO)
• a lot of DRAM (MU) 
• electricity producers and delivery (see below)

**********************************
Disclaimer
Brief Reminder 

Briefly:

• I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken and I am often well out front of my headlights. I am often appropriately accused of hyperbole when it comes to the Bakken.
• I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. 
• Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. 
• All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If something appears wrong, it probably is. Feel free to fact check everything.
• If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. 
• Many posts are not proofread for several days after they've been posted.  
• Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken, US economy, and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia. Nvidia is a metonym for AI and/or the sixth industrial revolution.
• I've now added Broadcom to the disclaimer. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Broadcom.
• And Oracle. 
• Longer version here.  

Oracle -- October 16, 2025

Locator: 49410ORACLE. 

With regard to Big Cap tech, the fog is beginning to clear. 

Link here. 

Link here.

**********************************
Disclaimer
Brief Reminder 

Briefly:

• I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken and I am often well out front of my headlights. I am often appropriately accused of hyperbole when it comes to the Bakken.
• I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. 
• Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. 
• All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If something appears wrong, it probably is. Feel free to fact check everything.
• If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. 
• Many posts are not proofread for several days after they've been posted.  
• Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken, US economy, and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia. Nvidia is a metonym for AI and/or the sixth industrial revolution.
• I've now added Broadcom to the disclaimer. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Broadcom.
• And Oracle. 
• Longer version here.  

 *******************************
BRK-B

 

One year:

• S&P 500: up 13% 
• BRK-B: up 4% 

Meanwhile, the Buffet watch, link here. From the linked article:

Berkshire Hathaway has a deal to pay $9.7 billion in cash to buy OxyChem, Occidental Petroleum’s chemical business.

It could be Warren Buffett’s last major acquisition before he gives up his CEO role at the end of the year.

It is Berkshire’s biggest deal since it paid $11.6 billion for insurer Allegheny in 2022, but it is not the enormous “elephant” that Buffett has been hunting for that would put a significant dent in the company’s roughly $340 billion in cash as of the end of June.

The deal builds on an already close relationship between the companies:  Berkshire is Occidental’s largest shareholder with a stake of almost 27% currently valued at $11.9 billion.

In addition, Occidental is paying an 8% dividend on more than $8 billion in preferred shares held by Berkshire after what was, in effect, a loan to help OXY buy Anadarko Petroleum in 2019.

As part of that deal, Berkshire also now holds warrants to buy nearly 84 million additional OXY common shares for just under $60 per share, which is higher than their current price just under $45.

Despite those ties, Buffett told shareholders two years ago Berkshire will not try to acquire Occidental in its entirety.

In a live interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” the morning of the announcement, CEO Vicki Hollub said it will use $6.5 billion of the OxyChem purchase price to reduce its debt, bringing it below the $15 billion target set when it bought Permian Basin producer CrownRock in late 2023 for $12 billion.

“Now we’re going to be able to start our share repurchase program again ...

Question Of The Day -- October 16, 2025

Locator: 49409AAPL. 

AI prompt: 

Apple. AAPL. What are your thoughts? The president of the US wants less US manufacturing in China, and yet Tim Cook (Apple) pledges even more manufacturing in China? What's up?

Reminder: Apple was invited to White House gala / celebration last night. 

I did not see AMD, Intel, Nvidia, or TSMC on the guest list. 

AI prompt:  

On another note, still with regard to Apple. I completely agree with your assessment regarding Apple's geopolitical risks due to supply chain issues. Apple had to have known that this headline story -- more investment in China -- would cause alarm for investors and indeed, AAPL is one of the few laggards in the market (again) today. Tim Cook cannot afford to miss earnings estimates to be released October 30, 2025. Putting all this together suggests the following: short term, Tim Cook feels comfortable that AAPL will meet / beat earnings estimates and was able to take a chance on going to China now, despite risks to share price between now and October 30. Short term to medium term: Apple is having a challenging time keeping up with iPhone 17 demand and needs Chinese help. In addition, China is a huge market for Apple, and Tim Cook wanted to thank China for approving sales of the iPhone Air this past week. Longer term, Tim Cook has an intuitive feeling with regard to Apple's relationship with the White House. One needs to remember that AAPL was at the big White House party last night; AMD, Nvidia, Intel, TSMC were not. Thoughts?

CAT Apparently Hit An Intra-Day High At The Open -- October 16, 2025

Locator: 49408INVESTING. 

GLW: flirting with a new 52-week high: 

Corning Optical: major expansion. Story gets national attention. 

**********************************
Disclaimer
Brief Reminder 

Briefly:

• I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken and I am often well out front of my headlights. I am often appropriately accused of hyperbole when it comes to the Bakken.
• I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. 
• Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. 
• All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If something appears wrong, it probably is. Feel free to fact check everything.
• If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. 
• Many posts are not proofread for several days after they've been posted.  
• Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken, US economy, and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia. Nvidia is a metonym for AI and/or the sixth industrial revolution.
• I've now added Broadcom to the disclaimer. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Broadcom.
• Longer version here. 

Chart Of The Day -- October 16, 2025

Locator: 49407ALLIANCE. 

Wiki: link here. 

The world's first industrial airport. 

The individual most associated with Alliance, TX:

Alliance, TX: #1 port of entry in the Southwest, northwest of Ft Worth; link here.

Unfortunately ChatGPT was not helpful explaining the huge jump. This is about all ChatGPT could tell me:

Texas DOT forecasts that the Alliance, TX, area will be the geo-economic-population center of the DFW metroplex in 2050. Currently that bragging right belongs to the Plano - Frisco area north of Dallas.

Maps: 

Thursday -- TSM Delivers -- October 16, 2025

Locator: 49406B. 

TSM delivered:

• link here;
• beats estimates (Barron's); 
• raises guidance (MarketWatch);
• Nvidia, Taiwan Semiconductor (Barron's);
• shares,pre-market
• TSM: up 2.5%
• NVDA: up 1.5% 

Alliance, TX: #1 port of entry in the Southwest, northwest of Ft Worth; link here. A closer look, link here.
 

***************************
Back to the Bakken

WTI: $58.62

New wells: link here. 

RBN Energy: link here. 

Disclaimer

 

**********************************
Disclaimer
Brief Reminder 

Briefly:

• I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken and I am often well out front of my headlights. I am often appropriately accused of hyperbole when it comes to the Bakken.
• I am inappropriately exuberant about the US economy and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• See disclaimer. This is not an investment site. 
• Disclaimer: this is not an investment site. Do not make any investment, financial, job, career, travel, or relationship decisions based on what you read here or think you may have read here. 
• All my posts are done quickly: there will be content and typographical errors. If something appears wrong, it probably is. Feel free to fact check everything.
• If anything on any of my posts is important to you, go to the source. If/when I find typographical / content errors, I will correct them. 
• Many posts are not proofread for several days after they've been posted.  
• Reminder: I am inappropriately exuberant about the Bakken, US economy, and the US market.
• I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Apple. 
• And now, Nvidia, also. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Nvidia. Nvidia is a metonym for AI and/or the sixth industrial revolution.
• I've now added Broadcom to the disclaimer. I am also inappropriately exuberant about all things Broadcom.
• Longer version here.