Infrastructure Intelligence

Four technology companies are expected to spend about $750 billion this year, and Meta is raising $35 billion in equity to keep pace. PJM moves toward ride-through rules for data centers, Oregon pauses data-center permits, and NiSource adds 1,100 MW for Microsoft.

Amazon, AEP and X-energy study a 960 MW nuclear plant at a retired Indiana coal site. DOE funds grid technologies to unlock 290 MW on existing lines. FERC proposes faster LNG and gas reviews. Google pays for $600 million of Arkansas grid upgrades, and CBRE agrees to buy Onnec.

FERC accepts PJM's large-load registry and rejects the interim-service framework behind it. A Senate permitting bill would make data centers carry their transmission costs. PJM fast-tracks 2.1 GW, Google backs 890 MW of nuclear uprates, and DOE issues another emergency order for PJM.

Project Star moves 6.47 GW of gas generation toward a 5 GW campus. TeraWulf doubles its Kentucky position to 1 GW and funds $100 million in proposed customer credits. FERC suspends PJM's backstop procurement to February 2027. And ERCOT's Batch Zero audit continues.

DOE's SPARK selections, CAISO's draft flexible large-load framework, customer-backed equipment procurement and new development-liquidity structures all point the same way: power capacity is increasingly something that can be engineered, financed and developed.

Google, NVIDIA and Emerald AI launched the AI Energy Management Alliance the same week PJM called demand response across much of its footprint. Plus California signs seven data center bills into law, NERC's first computational load standards clear an initial ballot, and Nscale takes a power-first platform to the public markets.

PJM disclosed that nearly 4,000 MW of data-center load dropped off the grid during a July disturbance, and is now proposing ride-through requirements for computational loads. Plus ERCOT moves from classifying Batch Zero projects to verifying them, Aligned breaks ground on a 2 GW energy-first campus, and DOE opens the EO 14421 implementation process.

ERCOT issues its first Batch Zero conditional classifications inside an active statewide audit. MISO moves to hold large computational loads to generator-grade performance. Google contracts 396 MW of enhanced geothermal before committing to the data center it may serve. And Executive Order 14421 reaches into grid equipment sourcing.

Executive Order 14421 moves grid-equipment provenance into the development equation, ERCOT's Batch Zero reshapes large-load interconnection in Texas, and speed-to-power becomes the variable deciding which projects actually get built.