The Million Dollar Way (The Bakken Oil Blog): 11/12/25

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

How Can This Be Anyone But OpenAI And Stargate? November 12, 2025

Locator: 49411CVX.

Tag: Chevron OpenAI tech LDC AI

Link here.

Microsoft's Fairwater Family Of AI-Focused Data Centers -- November 12, 2025

Locator: 49410FAIRWATER.

Tag: LDC AI tech MSFT

Performance: ten times greater than current fastest / largest supercomputers in the world.

Overview:

Energy source:

Cost:

From x, link here:

From The WSJ, link here:

From ChatGPT, November 12, 2025:

In broad strokes, the Fairwater project by Microsoft and the Stargate project by OpenAI share key similarities:

both are major infrastructure initiatives to build large-scale data-centers and AI compute capacity.
but they are not identical in scope, ownership, purpose and arrangement.

How They Compare And Differ

What they have in common:

both are about purpose-built AI infrastructure rather than general cloud/data centers
Fairwater is described as “purpose-built AI datacenters … built to work as one massive AI supercomputer using a single flat networking interconnecting hundreds of thousands of the latest NVIDIA GPUs.
Stargate is described as a huge data‐centre build-out (in the U.S. and beyond) intended to support frontier AI models, massive compute, etc.
oth involve enormous investment and cutting‐edge hardware (e.g., many thousands of GPUs, novel cooling/architecture).
For Fairwater: “Hundreds of thousands of NVIDIA GB200 GPUs … fiber that could circle the Earth 4.5 times.”
For Stargate: up to $500 billion invested over the next few years to build AI infrastructure.
Both see strategic importance in AI compute capability (training large models, inference, etc.)
Microsoft: “Deliver 10× the performance of the world’s fastest supercomputer today, enabling AI training and inference workloads at a level never before seen.”
OpenAI / Stargate: “We are moving with urgency on site assessments … re-imagining how data centres are designed to power advanced AI and make its benefits widely accessible.”

How They Differ

Ownership / Partnership / Purpose

Fairwater is a Microsoft-led project (within Microsoft’s Azure/AI infrastructure) and its build is part of Microsoft’s own operations and partnerships. For example: “Fairwater … is part of a global network of purpose-built AI datacenters … integrated into Microsoft’s cloud of more than 400 datacenters across 70 regions.”
Stargate is a separate initiative by OpenAI (with partners such as Oracle, SoftBank Group Corp.) to build massive AI infrastructure and expand compute capacity; Microsoft is a “key initial technology partner” in Stargate but not necessarily the primary owner.
Scale & Public Commitment
Stargate’s public figure: up to $500 billion over four years to build new AI infrastructure in the U.S., with targets like 10 gigawatts of compute capacity.
Fairwater’s public figure: e.g., Microsoft publicly pledged ~$3.3 billion investment in the Wisconsin site.
So the scale of what OpenAI/Stargate is publicly committing is much larger (or at least ambitiously larger) than what Microsoft has publicly disclosed for Fairwater so far.
Geographic / System Integration
Fairwater is being built as a “network” of sites (Wisconsin, Atlanta, etc) interconnected to form “the world’s first planet-scale AI superfactory.”
Stargate likewise is about multiple large data-centers across the U.S. and beyond. But the emphasis is very heavily on build-out of compute capacity and infrastructure partnerships.
Primary Use/Customers
Fairwater appears to serve Microsoft’s AI services (Azure AI, Copilot, etc) and extend its own infrastructure capabilities.
Stargate is explicitly positioned as part of OpenAI’s infrastructure strategy to underpin its own model training and inference, and changing the compute landscape broadly. For example: “This infrastructure will … secure American leadership in AI … provide … a strategic capability to protect the national security of America and its allies.”

ChatGPT also explains the different models: Stargate, Fairwater, and AWS. I won't post that at this time. It becomes overwhelming.

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A Musical Interlude

For the steel guitar.

Link here.

The Book Page -- November 12, 2025

Locator: 49409ARCHIVES.

The government shutdown: all I can say is that this has been hell for all the families of E-4s and below in the US military. Many (most?) of these families are living on a salary below the poverty level as defined by the US government, and are literally living from paycheck to paycheck. I have no idea how in the world our government could allow this to happen. So much could be said, but for now, my heart simply goes out to all these folks. Those families stranded stateside while their active duty spouse was stationed at some miserable base overseas were particularly hurt. I can't imagine a mom trying to explain to her elementary children why they had even less money than they normally had.

I have incredible respect for the eight members of Schumer's caucus who had had enough and were willing to break away to end this madness. I'm particularly impressed with John Fetterman who never voted to keep the government shut down. A true statesman.

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The Book Page

The Rings Of Saturn, W. G. Sebald, Translated By Michael Hulse, c. 1995, German; English Translation, 1998.

Notes here.

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A Musical Interlude

Link here.

At The Close -- Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Locator: 49408B.

Dow: first close about 48,000.

Cisco: earnings beat; shares up over 4% after hours.

CAT: chart of the day --

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $58.29.

Active rigs: 32.

Two new permits, #42470 - #42471, inclusive:

Operator: Petro-Hunt;
Field: East Tioga, Burke County
Comments:

Petro-Hunt has permits for two wells, an Estby well and an Hoiby well, the first NWNW 25-159-94; and, the second, NESE 5-158-94,

the first to be sited 360 FNL and 249 FWL; and,
the second, to be sited 1635 FSL and 300 FEL.

Four permits renewed:

CLR: four Lancaster permits, NWNE 28-152-102, Elk oil field, McKenzie County.

Dry hole:

41113, dry, Hess, BL-Ray-155-95-0503H-6, Williams County;

November 12, 2025 -- And It Continues

Locator: 49407MARKET.

Coinbase: leaving Delaware, relocating to Texas / reincorporating in Texas. All due to regulations. Link here. Link here.

CVX: getting ready to make FID on Leviathan. Part of $2.4 billion Leviathan field expansion. Seems like a no-brainer? With Guyana and now Leviathan, CVX seems to be hitting on all cylinders.

Guyana: on a side note, "Guyana" continues to get a lot of headlines, but in the big scheme of things, Guyana seems about the same size as the Bakken.

Intel vs AMD: for as long as any of us have been investing, it was "always" AMD competing with Intel. This morning, CNBC had a very, very long interview with the AMD CEO, Lisa Su. It was an incredible interview, mostly for the length, if not necessarily the quality of the questions or the answers. Most interesting was when Joe Kernen asked the question many have been asking, "what happened to Intel," and then showed this graphic:

I asked "ChatGPT" this same question some weeks ago, and it came down to this. It all changed when Intel made the decision to not provide a chip / not partner with Apple on the iPhone. Apple approached Intel first for a cellular phone chip and Intel said they could not see the "profit" advantage, and so they declined to partner with Apple. Apple is incredibly difficult to deal with, according to most sources, and Apple's demands were simply too tough to meet for Apple.

So, when did Intel make that decision?

Based on what I know now, Apple lucked into the right decision. Pure luck. A random thought: one wonders if Intel CEO was too close to Steve Ballmer in his thinking regarding the $500 iPhone? LOL. Eightteen years ago. Arm, wiki.

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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.

Foxconn Beats Estimates -- November 12, 2025

Locator: 49406FOXCONN.

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.

AMD -- Anticipation -- Pre-Market -- November 12, 2025

Locator: 49405AMD.

Tag: chips

AMD: pre-market, up $13. Why? See below and/or at this link.

GPUs updated, link here: look at all the new chips for 2025, and look who has the lead:

*************************************

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.

GPU Update -- November 12, 2025

Locator: 49404CHIPS.

Wow, wow, wow -- another update -- things are moving so quickly. Wiki has just updated its tracking of GPUs.

Previously, earlier this year, the last entry was a 2025 Nvidia chip:

Now, look at all the new chips for 2025, and look who has the lead:

Hump Day -- November 12, 2025

Locator: 49403B.

Flight tracking: just added "Flighty" app to my iPhone. Free version.

Energy needs for the AI buildout: I absolutely can't get my brain around this, link here:

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Back to the Bakken

WTI: $60.55. Link here.

New wells reporting: link here.

RBN Energy: link here.

Apple -- Random Note -- November 12, 2025

Locator: 49402AAPL.

I completely missed this last week when I took a ten-day break from watching the stock market, Schwab accounts, and CNBC.

It was not mentioned by either Dan Nathan (perennial AAPL bear) or Guy Adamia (perennial AAPL agnostic).

But apparently Apple has had quite a run over the past two weeks.

According to AI:

AAPL hit its intra-day high of $277.32 on October 31, 2025. This record was broken a week later, when the stock hit a new intraday high of $277.32 on November 11, 2025.

Intra-day high: $277.32 on November 11, 2025
Previous high: $277.32 on October 31, 2025

You can tell it's AI because it doesn't quite make sense, but ...

From Forbes: what will drive AAP L's next move? Link here.

Ticker before market open (futures suggest another record close, if not necessarily another intra-day high):

N2 Chip Update -- November 12, 2025

Locator: 49401CHIPS.

Links only.

Chips are tracked here. Will be updated later.

Google: Apple 2 nm chips.

Google: Chip N2.

Google: home automation matter thread.

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Reminiscing

My military past.

Google: MICAP U.S. Air Force's Mission Impaired Capability Awaiting Parts process. Predecessor to the internet. I was in Europe at the time when I was first introduced to MICAP.