Data centers tip US gas demand past supply by 2028

Source: BloombergNEF, Bloomberg Terminal’s MAP , DC Byte 1Q 2026 data. Note: Colors may appear “mixed” due to a single data center with capacity in multiple stages at once. Power demand from information technology (IT) load is expressed in units of megawatts capacity.

THE NUMBER

$4 billion

Cash NRG Energy expects to receive for six gas-fired power plants with 4.9 GW of capacity. That works out to approximately $816 per kilowatt of existing generation.

Plenty of oil companies are using AI. Few can tell you what it’s worth.

We went through 200 AI projects at 96 oil and gas companies. Most are up and running. Only 48 come with a number, and those numbers don’t measure the same thing.

TODAY’S MENU

LEAD STORY

$4B — NRG sells six gas plants back to LS Power, which came asking

•   NRG says it wasn’t selling. LS Power pays 8.0x 2027 EBITDA for Ravenswood, Ocean State, Wallingford and three Texas plants, all part of January’s $12 billion LS Power deal.

•   NRG keeps PJM and CPower, adds $1 billion of buybacks for $3 billion across 2026–27 and plans $2 billion more debt paydown at the 2Q27 close. 2027 EBITDA guide is $5.5–6.0 billion, ex-sale.

THE HEADLINES

MIDSTREAM

~$2.1B — Diamondback and KKR buy Five Point’s 70% of water firm Deep Blue

•   With Diamondback’s existing 30%, the pair will own all of the Midland Basin water platform. KKR funds its share mainly from Global Infrastructure Investors V and wants more deals together.

•   Neither side gave a price; Bloomberg puts the cash equity value at about $2.1 billion. Diamondback says its wells need nearly 2 MMbbl/d of water moved. Closing is expected in 4Q26.

DATA CENTERS

900 MW — CoreWeave signs up power faster than it can switch it on

•   Contracted power rose more than 900 MW in 3Q to over 4.6 GW; active power rose 200-plus MW to over 1.7 GW. Backlog hit ~$132.5 billion, and 2026 capex guidance is now $37–39 billion.

•   Revenue was $3.66 billion. Interest expense of $846 million swamped $207 million of operating income, and the net loss widened to $709 million from $110 million a year earlier.

UPSTREAM

C$2.9B — Strathcona buys Greenfire, and Waterous sits on both sides

•   Holders choose C$11 cash or 0.25 Strathcona shares, with no proration: a 39% or 15% premium. The deal is C$2.7–2.9 billion with ~C$550 million of net debt. WEF owns 72% and takes stock.

•   The combined company produces 153 Mbbl/d and targets 260 Mbbl/d by 2031. Strathcona expects ~C$75 million of annual synergies. Closing follows shareholder votes expected in January 2027.

DATA CENTERS

$3.7B — SoftBank pays the price for locking in U.S. power gear early

•   SoftBank booked a ¥597.2 billion loss over six months after changing plans for U.S. AI data center power equipment. It swung to a ¥1.12 trillion (~$7 billion) quarterly net loss.

•   It had paid $9.48 billion for generation equipment by September, including for the PORTS-Pike campus in Ohio. Reuters reports up to $2.1 billion of rebates on future purchases.

POWER

$3.4B — Anthropic takes over 1.7 GW of someone else’s generator order

•   OnePWR ordered the Caterpillar units two years ago but needed money to finish the purchase, the FT reports. Anthropic signed in late September and did not buy OnePWR or hire its staff.

•   That is about $2 million per MW, including engineering and construction. Anthropic’s IPO filing says some planned sites run on on-site gas, with fuel costs passed through to it.

QUICK HITS

LNG

5 GW — Venture Global puts dates on its gas-to-compute island pitch

We led with its 16-island frame deals Oct. 15. New: first 250 MW of compute in late 2028 and ~5 GW by end-2031, still with no customer named. It raised 2026 EBITDA guidance to $10.0–10.3B.

DATA CENTERS

$17B — Google puts CCS on its Wyoming fuel cells and buys Crusoe’s site

We ran AEP’s 702 MW Bloom deal for Google Oct. 15. New: a $17 billion Cheyenne campus, storage of most fuel-cell emissions at Tallgrass’s CCS hub, and a study on capture for Tallgrass’s turbines.

NUCLEAR

320 MW — The NRC lets Dow build four Xe-100 reactors at Seadrift, Texas

It's the first NRC approval of a high-temperature gas reactor in nearly 60 years. Dow may take a preliminary investment decision in 2027; full construction waits on FID and operation on a license.

CCS

2 Mtpa — Occidental lines up third-party CO₂ for its Permian EOR fields

Two unnamed developers will fund capture at Delaware Basin gas plants and nearly 100 miles of CO₂ pipe, with room to reach 4 Mtpa. Both projects still need FID; first deliveries are due in 2029.

ALMOST HEADLINES

DATA CENTERS  $24B — SpaceX proposes a gas plant and supercomputer at Starbase; a tax-abatement hearing is set for Dec. 9

POLICY  73–25 — The Senate votes to begin debate on the permitting bill; amendments and another 60-vote test come next

DATA CENTERS  $300M — WhiteFiber signs NC-1 project financing as all 40 MW of capacity for Nscale comes online and starts billing

UPSTREAM  7.875% — Ecopetrol prices $2 billion of 2034 notes, 3.5x covered, to repay its Brava loan and retire 2029 bonds

POWER  2.7% — EIA’s November outlook sees U.S. power-sector generation reaching a record of almost 4,390 TWh in 2026

MIDSTREAM  1,002 MMcf/d — Double E sets a throughput record as Summit raises its 2026 EBITDA guidance to $250–260 million

THE READING LIST

REUTERS

AI power rush sends data centres hunting for used turbines and jet engines

THE NATIONAL

A wave of new LNG supply will change who wins in gas

BLOOMBERG

Oil falls to August lows on signs of Iran war peace progress

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