Meta's Hyperion Data Center In Louisiana -- Funding Update -- October 21, 2025

Locator: 49467META.
Locator: 49467LDC.

The data center is tracked here. 

CNBC tends to ask daily how these large data centers are going to be funded.  

Bonds. 

Link here. 

BlackRock was among the biggest investors in the $27 billion private-debt deal backing construction of Meta Platforms’ data center in Louisiana, highlighting the scale of the artificial-intelligence buildout and its insatiable demand for capital.

BlackRock bought more than $3 billion of bonds issued last week to finance the data center, which is called Hyperio. 

The project is 

• 80%-owned by private-credit manager Blue Owl Capital OWL, and, 
• Facebook parent Meta owns the remaining 20% stake.

The bond sale: the largest private-debt offering everS&P. 

The credit-ratings firm S&P gave the bonds an A+, recognizing Meta’s role in backing for the project. But the debt yielded 6.58% at issue, a level more common in junk bonds.

Black Rock:

• the world’s largest asset manager in part because of its postcrisis bet that ETFs, which trade on exchanges like a stock and have certain tax advantages, would supplant mutual funds as the investment vehicle of choice for deep-pocketed and individual investors alike. 
• BlackRock’s iShares funds alone manage more than $5 trillion in assets.
• A slice of BlackRock’s bond purchases went to its ETFs. 
• An active high-yield ETF bought Hyperion bonds last week valued at $2.1 million by Monday, making it the fund’s largest investment by far, according to fund disclosures. 
• A BlackRock total-return ETF holds about $1.2 million of the debt and a loan ETF owns about $651,000.

Pimco:

• the giant bond manager, was the biggest buyer, accounting for $18 billion.

The deal:

• the bonds were priced at face value of 100 cents on the dollar last week. 
• by Monday, BlackRock’s funds had valued them at 110.2 cents, implying large paper gains for investors that initially participated in the transaction.

More:

• by issuing the debt through its venture with Blue Owl, Meta was able to finance the deal off of its balance sheet;
• Intel used a similar off-balance-sheet arrangement last year with Apollo Global Management to finance an $11 billion chip factory in Ireland.

When I see this picture, I see one investment opportunity!  CAT!

CAT has had a bad couple of weeks (profit-taking) but has almost doubled its value in the last six months. Up 84% in the last six months:

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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.  

Four New Permits; Four DUCs Reported As Completed -- October 21, 2025

Locator: 49466B.

October 21, 2025: $27 billion to finance. Meta and Blue Owl, private-credit firm to finance LDC -- formerly known as the Richland Parish Data Center, but apparently is now called the Hyperion data center.

• project is 80%-owned by private-credit manager Blue Owl Capital
• Meta owns the remaining 20%
• investors:
• BlackRock: $3 billion in bonds 
• Pimco: $18 billion 

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Back to the Bakken

The area north and northeast of Williston is staying busy.

 

WTI: $57.82.

Active rigs: 32.

Four new permits, #42416 - 42419, inclusive:

• Permits:
• 42416, conf, Kraken, Emerson LE 33-28-21 11H, Blue Ridge,
• 42417, conf, Kraken, Emerson 33-28-21 4H, Blue Ridge,
• 42418, conf, Kraken, Emerson 33-28-21 3H, Blue Ridge,
• 42419, conf, Kraken, Emerson 33-28-21 2H, Blue Ridge,
• Field: Blue Ridge, McKenzie County;
• Comments:
• Oasis has permits for Emerson wells, lot 1, section 4-158-100
• to be sited 275 / 374 FNL and 831 FEL;

Four producing wells (DUCs) reported as completed:

• 38111, 180, Silver Hill Energy, LFM2 18-06 161-93 BMB, Burke County;
• 41341, 691, MRO, Wayne 24-7H, Dunn County; 
• 41345, 1,709, MRO, Georgia 14-8H, Dunn County; 
• 41462, 2,109, CLR, Klepp 4-12H, Williams County;  

It's Not Going To Be Easy -- Apple To Reach A Market Cap Of $4 Trillion -- October 21, 2025

Locator: 49465ARCHIVES.

AAPL: will have to reach $270/share to make the $4 trillion mark.

Constellation Energy: cover story in Barron's this week. Really amazing. Link here. Includes an interactive map.

P/E:

• AAPL: 40; historical 28 - 30; forward: 32 - 34: 
• CEG: 37 

Dividend:

• AAPL: 0.4%
• CEG: 0.4%

Market cap:

• AAPL: trending toward $4 trillion
• CEG: $115 billion

 

AI prompt: 

With regard to investing and specifically electric utilities, does it seem like Constellation Energy is significantly different than your father's utility? CEG seems to be a growth company, not a value company. Its P/E must be several orders of magnitude greater than expected for a utility. And it's dividend? It looks like a tech company. Either I'm misreading CEG or investors see this utility playing a major role in generating / delivering electricity to large data centers. Thoughts?

AI prompt: 

Which companies are likely to be delivering electricity to large data centers in a) west Texas; and, in b) east Texas (Houston and south to the border)?

AI reply: 

The first reply did not include Constellation Energy. When I pointed that out, AI came back with a notable mea culpa and inserted Constellation Energy into the discussion. 

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The Book Page

The God Problem: How A Godless Cosmos Creates, Howard Bloom, c. 2012.

I have a copy of this book in the Bat Cave. It may be packed away. I thought I was buying a Harold Bloom book when I picked up this copy some years ago while traveling -- I think it was in Kalispell, MT. Whatever.

Today, I spotted it at the local library and am again interested in Howard (not Harold) Bloom.

 

WBNA -- October 21, 2025

Locator: 49464ARCHIVES.

I've not followed the WBNA except peripherally. I thought it was doing relatively well.

It may be time for a re-look.

Start here: behind a paywall but enough to get you started. Link here.

Then here: The Ringer. Link here.

Much could be said but I think I will wait, but a lot of this seems obvious. My hunch: the WBNA could learn more from the NFL than from the NBA. Unfortunately, the NBA owns 60% of the WBNA if I read that correctly.

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The Book Page

Two books today.

Shakespeare and the Countess: The Battle That Gave Birth to the Globe, Chris Laoutaris, c. 2014.

Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America, Maricel E. Presilla (Cuban heritage), c. 2012.  

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Sir Henry Neville

Shakespeare and the Countess: The Battle That Gave Birth to the Globe, Chris Laoutaris, c. 2014. 

The only reason I'm looking at this book: Sir Henry Neville, p. 74, 111, 112-113, 121, 278.

Chapter 4: 
Queen Elizabeth I
1566: had just knighted Thomas Hoby as her ambassador to France; his wife: Elizabeth Russell.

Familiar names: Killegrew, Cecil.

Killigrew had married Elizabeth's sister, Katherine.

1566: Sir Thomas Hoby falls ills in Paris. Dies at the age of 36.

A story of the theater, but even more so, the story of the religious fights during Elizabeth I's reign. This might make it a book worth reading. Not sure yet. I don't care for the writing style.

Page 74: the funeral procession for Thomas Hoby: 
Anthony Cooke, along with Thomas Hoby's male kinsmen and Sir Henry Neville. 
A neighbour of Elizabeth's in the Blackfriars, Nevill would soon marry her niece, Elizabeth Bacon, and go on to play a significant role in the development of hte Blackfriars theatres just a stone's throw away from her own home.

Wow, the dots are starting to connect.

Page 111: The deat of Elizabeth Russell's father nearly frustrated the plans of one theatrical entrepreneur who had firmly set his sights on the Blackfriars. The Queen had been thinking of visiting her namesake at Bisham Abbey during her Progress that summer, and her itinerary was of particular interest to Sir Henry Neville. 

Then a long three pages on Sir Henry Neville.

Ends with the first mention of William Shakespeare, p 114. 

Page 121: "A few years later Sir Thomas would be involved with Elizabeth's close friend and kinsman Sir Henry Neville in the equipping of the 'trained shot' in Berkshire, the troops pressed into the service of the Crown during the attack of the Spanish Armada in 1588. His efforts in Elizabeth's home county at this time would be coordinated with those of Sir Thomas Lucy, of Shakespeare's native Warwickshire, who would soon play an instrumental role in the near-destruction of the playwright's Arden kinfolk."

Page 278: very convoluted paragraph on the relationship between several families, two theaters, and Sir Henry Neville. This may be an important chapter to parse / breakdown some day. 

Chapter 26
All's Well That Ends Well

A most important chapter -- although Sir Henry Neville is not mentioned, it appears this chapter, the penultimate chapter in the book (prior to the Epilogue) has some important holes to fill.

AI: Elizabeth Russell: the Dowager Countess of Bedford

Elizabeth Russell was called the "Dowager Countess of Bedford" because she was married to the son of the Earl of Bedford, but she was not a countess in her own right. She is also known for leading a successful uprising against Shakespeare's plan to build a playhouse in the Blackfriars district of London in 1596, which ultimately forced his company to build the Globe Theatre across the river instead.

Countess of Bedford

She was the widow of Sir John Russell, the son of the Earl of Bedford.

Although her husband died before he could inherit the title, she insisted on calling herself "Dowager Countess of Bedford."

Her claim to the title was legally questionable, as she was a widow and not married to an earl.

Battle with Shakespeare

In 1596, she led a NIMBY ("Not In My Backyard") campaign against the construction of Shakespeare's new indoor playhouse in the Blackfriars area.

She successfully convinced many of her neighbors to join her cause, citing concerns about noise, traffic, and the general "lewd persons" who would gather there.

Her efforts prevented the theater from opening in Blackfriars, and the company was forced to build the Globe Theatre in Southwark.

Some historians suggest that Shakespeare may have included a sympathetic female character named the "Dowager Countess of Roussillon" in his play All's Well That Ends Well as a way of acknowledging her influence.

RBN Energy -- Updating Enbridge's Natural Gas Storage Along The Gulf Coast -- October 21, 2025

Locator: 49463ENBRIDGE.

Link to RBN Energy. Archived.

Today's RBN Energy blog will soon end up behind a paywall. It will be accessible for a few more days.

RBN Energy is updating the natural gas storage buildout along the Gulf coast.  

Here's an excerpt with regard to Enbridge:

Figure 2. Enbridge’s Gulf Coast Gas Storage Assets. Source: Enbridge

Next up is Enbridge, whose Gulf Coast gas storage assets include the Tres Palacios salt cavern facility in Matagorda County, TX (blue tank icon in Figure 2 above). When the company acquired Tres Palacios from Brookfield Infrastructure Partners and Crestwood Equity Partners in April 2023, it had three caverns with a combined capacity of 35 Bcf, plus an integrated 62-mile gas header pipeline system (blue line) with connections to 11 interstate and intrastate pipelines. In January, Enbridge brought online a fourth cavern that added 6.5 Bcf of capacity.

The midstreamer also holds an ownership interest in a 2-Bcf storage facility at the Waha Hub in West Texas (purple star) as well as full ownership of three other salt cavern facilities closer to the coast (orange stars): the 29-Bcf Bobcat site in St. Landry Parish, LA; the 22-Bcf Moss Bluff site in Liberty County, TX; and the 21-Bcf Egan site in Acadia Parish, LA.

Enbridge CEO Greg Ebel said in May that the company had recently concluded open seasons regarding possible expansions at Tres Palacios, Moss Bluff and Egan and “was engaging with customers around potential future growth opportunities.” In August, Enbridge Gas Transmission & Midstream President Cynthia Hansen added, “We're looking at whether, with the open season interest, we'll be expanding more at Tres, Moss and Egan. There’s a lot of obviously good opportunities in that area.”

Kinder Morgan has full or partial ownership stakes in more than 700 Bcf of gas storage capacity in the U.S., including more than 155 Bcf (light-blue tank icons in Figure 3 below) along or near the midstream giant’s Texas and Tejas intrastate pipeline systems (brown and purple lines) and NGPL interstate system (green lines). These include 99.4 Bcf at West Clear Lake, 27.8 Bcf at Markham Storage (expanded by 6 Bcf in June 2024), 11 Bcf at Dayton North, 9.6 Bcf at North Lansing, 1.4 Bcf at Stratton Ridge and (if you include West Texas) 6.4 Bcf at Keystone. Kinder also has 1.4 Bcf of storage (Bear Creek) in northern Louisiana along the Southern Natural Gas (SONAT) system (medium-blue tank icon and light-orange lines, respectively), in which it holds a 50% stake.

RBN Energy -- Updating ONEOK's Natural Gas Storage Along The Gulf Coast -- October 21, 2025

Locator: 49462ONEOK.

Link to RBN Energy. Archived.

Today's RBN Energy blog will soon end up behind a paywall. It will be accessible for a few more days.

RBN Energy is updating the natural gas storage buildout along the Gulf coast.  

Here's an excerpt with regard to ONEOK:

Finally (for today, at least), there’s ONEOK, which became a significant player in Gulf Coast gas storage when it acquired EnLink Midstream in January. As we discussed in last year’s Drill Down Report, EnLink owned — and ONEOK now owns — three gas storage facilities in Louisiana (yellow tank icons in Figure 4 below): Napoleonville (7 Bcf), Sorrento (2.5 Bcf) and Jefferson Island (2 Bcf). The company also owns a 0.8-Bcf gas storage facility in North Texas (green tank icon).

Figure 4. ONEOK’s Gulf Coast Gas Storage Assets. Source: RBN

ONEOK continues to develop an $85 million brownfield expansion at Jefferson Island — aka JISH, for Jefferson Island Storage Hub — that EnLink had sanctioned in August 2024. The two new salt caverns, which are expected to be operational in Q1 2028, will increase JISH’s working capacity to about 10 Bcf from the current 2 Bcf. In March, the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality approved a water quality certificate for the project.

Also, before being acquired by ONEOK, EnLink said in a November 2024 presentation that early engineering studies indicated the potential for a storage expansion of up to 8 Bcf at the Napoleonville site. (ONEOK has not announced an expansion project there — so far, at least.)

In an upcoming blog, we’ll discuss the latest gas-storage-related developments at several other midstreamers with Gulf Coast storage assets or ambitions.

 

Apple Sales -- Re-Posting -- October 21, 2025

Locator: 49461APPLE.

Updates

October 21, 2025: Wedbush is generally more exuberant about Apple than any other analyst. 

Original Post 
October 16, 2025

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?

October 18, 2025 

AI prompt:

Apple iPhone Air. Just received regulatory approval to sell in China. Lots of stories at odds with each other. Some say that the iPhone Air is not doing all that well in the US and Europe, but yet the iPhone Air sold out in China in hours. What's our assessment of how the iPhone Air is doing? Or does it really matter, since it's a huge pie with iPhone Air, iPhone 17, Pro, and Pro Max all occupying a quarter of the large pie?

ChatGPT: again, a long reply. Requested a one-page PDF. Here it is:

This is very, very interesting. It leads to another AI prompt: 

This is very, very interesting. In the big scheme of things, the Apple iPhone Air did at least two things for Apple: the Air inserted itself into a new niche among cellphones -- extreme thinness -- a must-have fashion statement -- wards off other competitors beating them to that niche; and, second, the Air was a huge marketing "tool." "Everyone" was talking about the Air even if they didn't end up buying it. Free advertising, as it were (just as the ORANGE iPhone did the same thing). I can think of other reasons for the Air but those two seem to loom large in my rear view mirror.

A long reply, but a nice brief summarizing PDF:

Taco Tuesday -- October 21, 2025

Locator: 49460B.

College football: holy mackerel! Vanderbilt cracks the top 10. Comes in at #10. LSU drops to #20 after being #10 last week. What happened? Vanderbilt decisively beat LSU this past weekend. Wow! 

Kimmel, Hulu, Disney+, and all that jazz: link here.  

This explains why Bob Iger was so quick to put Kimmel back "on the air." LOL. It had nothing to do with anything but money, subscriptions, cancellations, and churn. Wow. And Bob had that information within 24 hours of canceling Kimmel.

Disney’s short-lived suspension of Jimmy Kimmel under pressure from the Trump administration may have had a permanent impact on the company’s subscription numbers. 

According to data released by Antenna, an analytics firm that tracks subscription and viewership data for major streaming services, cancellation rates for Disney+ and Hulu doubled from August to September – from 4 and 5% to 8 and 10%, respectively. So-called churn rates for Disney+ have hovered at 3-4% all year, with Hulu at 4-5%. 

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $57.98. Link here.

New wells: link here. 

RBN Energy: link here.