Following Hut 8's rather diabolical Friday-afternoon-before-Labor Day tweet that their Beacon Point project (the ~1GW gross, 704MW IT load campus leased to NVIDIA) received a conditional "Base Load" classification from ERCOT, I'd imagine early next week we get a flurry of similar updates from the other public data center developers building in Texas. In particular, confirmation of "Batch Zero - Base Load" for certain $CIFR $CLSK $CORZ $GLXY projects could be a catalyst for this broader bucket of names as it takes the projects closer to final authorization to energize, and likely removes any doubt as to whether the projects can be commercialized via a tenant lease. As the Hut 8 - NVIDIA lease showed, projects that were (i) approved by ERCOT prior to the Batch Process but (ii) are still subject to the Batch Process (because they have not yet been energized) can in fact be leased.. Yet the confusion caused by the hodge-podge of Batch Zero definitions, process steps, and ongoing delays in implementation of the Batch Process itself has definitely been an overhang on these stocks. Taking a step back, ERCOT's Batch Process was established in response to the overwhelming amount of load requests from data center developers (and speculators) seeking to connect to Texas's grid (400GW+ total..!). Rather than approve or deny each request separately, ERCOT's Batch Process studies all of the projects as a group to understand and allocate grid and transmission capacity. Late last week, ERCOT provided classifications on requested loads to transmission service providers (who then pass along those classifications to the relevant data center developer behind them). In short, a "Base Load" classification is the best outcome, and indicates that ERCOT has treated the project's existing studied power allocation as valid and effectively reserves the capacity for it. "Base Loads" are essentially grandfathered in. (Note that ERCOT had previously approved certain loads prior to the Batch Process being formalized. "Base Load" classification on these is more or less a reaffirmation of the prior approval.) "Studied Load" means that the project is eligible for the first "batch" of interconnection approvals (Batch Zero), but the requested power is not reserved or guaranteed as it requires further evaluation. "Studied Load" could result in full, partial, or no approval of the requested MWs. "Excluded Loads" are not eligible for Batch Zero and must wait to apply through a future ERCOT Batch Process. To summarize on $CIFR $CLSK $CORZ and $GLXY's Texas projects: - $CIFR hinted that its Colchis (1GW gross), Mikeska (500MW), and McLennan (500MW) sites are expected to receive "Base Load" classification, noting on its August 4th earnings call that "All three sites have necessary deposits funded, land secured, and their requisite studies and executed FEAs were submitted to ERCOT on time. We have strong conviction that all three sites will be included in Batch Zero." $CIFR also stated its 900MW Apollo project and 200MW expansion at Stingray "have been submitted as studied loads in Batch Zero." - $CLSK's Sealy site (285MW) came with existing ERCOT approvals when acquired in 2025. Similarly, 300MW at its Brazoria campus received ERCOT approval in 2026 before Batch Zero was formally effective. The second phase at Brazoria (another 300MW) is expected to be either base or studied load in Batch Zero. - $CORZ's 430MW at its Hunt site was approved in 2024, and a portion has already been leased to AMD (indicating a Base Load classification is highly likely). For its 300MW of requested expansion at its Pecos site, $CORZ did not provide explicit classification guidance. - $GLXY's 830MW (gross) of incremental power at Helios (Helios II) was already approved by ERCOT in January (before the Batch Zero process was codified), and the company labels it as "available to contract." As such, I view a "Base Load" classification as extremely likely. With respect to Galaxy's Caspian site, the company stated on its August 5 earnings call that "Caspian has a potential total gross power capacity of 700 megawatts and is eligible for Batch Zero Base Load classification based on the milestones we've already completed, including executed interconnection agreements and the posting of known and identified required financial commitments for transmission and distribution upgrades. That puts Caspian on one of the most advanced development paths within our expansion portfolio." Accordingly, I think a "Base Load" classification for Caspian is highly likely as well. Galaxy's Helios III (1GW) and Selene (900MW) are expected to be "Studied Loads." $CIFR $CLSK $CORZ $HUT $GLXY

We will give one banked reset for every day you don't have access to Astra on your paid ChatGPT plan, starting today. Team is moving mountains to give access as fast as we can. First one will land in ~ 3 hours. There is still time to create your account if you don't have one.

Astra (GPT-6) is here!!! I've had early access and tested it like crazy with things like games, code, writing, browser control, presentations and general knowledge work. This is the best model I've ever used. Period. (Incredible demos below in this thread ⬇️) Here's my take on Astra: > It's insanely capable. This feels like a massive improvement, not just an incremental change. This is especially true with zero-shot prompts. > It's all about knowledge work. Slide creation, analysis, writing, and browser control. And oh my...it's so good at browser control. GPT-5.6 was already fantastic at doing things in the browser, Astra is another level and significantly faster. > We're closer than ever (arrived?) at prompt-to-playable game. And I don't just mean only playable, these are actually fun games. I bet if someone with a great eye for games used Astra, they could create a viral game within 1-2 weeks. > Astra is better at writing but not perfect. It removes much of the "AI Smell" we're all familiar with but some stink still survived. > It has a tendency to use the same design colors and look/feel as GPT-5.6 (forrest green anyone?) but it is more steerable in design than previous models. > It's highly steerable in general. A little nudge goes a long way. When I first started using Astra, almost every task I gave it would go for ~30 minutes. I wanted it to keep working. Adding more specifics to a prompt helped greatly with it's ability to work for a long time. > Astra's 3D understanding is unmatched. 3D asset creation was consistent and easy and its spacial awareness while building complex 3D worlds blew me away. I'm still getting familiar with Astra but this will now be my go-to model for any difficult work I have. Check out the demos below: 👇

$GLXY @galaxyhq #GalaxyDataCenters# Something is cooking behind the scenes. Galaxy just formed three new data center related LLCs. Especially striking to me are the LLCs with the word "partners" incl. the GP&LP function! My first thought was they could sell a stake and bring a partner in, for a JV?! Share your thoughts what you think about those newly formed LLCs 🤝 You can see that those filings are brand new based on the file numbers (e.g. 10740184). The higher the number the newer the filing (form date of the LLCs). BTW: These are confidential filings imo - anyway they couldn't hide it from me 🕵️😤 @austorms @brian_wright21 @samellkay @SimritDhinsa @DougDeason @cferraro06 @novogratz

Gavin, spot on. AI is bringing manufacturing back to America and reindustrializing the nation after decades of offshoring. AI is creating demand that drives investment in our aging power grid and sustainable energy, powered by market forces, not subsidies. AI is creating construction and manufacturing jobs across energy plants, chip fabs and data centers. AI is creating new companies and industries. $400 billion has been invested in AI startups in the past six months alone. Builders must partner with communities to build in their hometowns, earn trust and create local benefits. We have an opportunity to create lasting benefits for communities across America and help America lead the next industrial revolution.

Regret the tone of my post on data centers yesterday. What I should have said: There were reasonable concerns about data centers 18ish months ago: water, taxes, jobs, electricity prices, the environment and what they would do to small towns. Well-structured data center projects have largely addressed these concerns today and we should be celebrating this. On balance, data centers are awesome for America in every way. On water: U.S. data centers use a fraction of what golf courses use. A lot of the numbers from 18 months ago were off by over 1000x. Newer data centers use closed-loop systems or recycled water. Should be required by every town approving a data center project. On taxes: looking only at sales-tax exemptions, as Ronan Farrow did, is the wrong way to evaluate this. Data centers pay significant property taxes. Loudoun County, which is the wealthiest county in America, now collects on the order of $1 billion a year from data centers. In Quincy, WA, data centers are more than half the property-tax roll. Over time, property taxes can go to zero while government spending increases in these towns. On jobs: this has been unambiguously awesome for blue collar Americans. Demand for electricians, plumbers, welders, HVAC techs, and contractors has gone vertical, and it is not a one-time construction job. These buildings get upgraded and expanded over time. That is why the building trades are fighting for them, and why some unions are now treating opposition to data centers as a reason not to endorse politicians. On power: the original fear was that households would pay for the incremental electricity demand in the form of higher prices. That is why the ratepayer-protection deals and the new large-load tariffs exist. The right structure is: the data center brings or pays for new generation and signs a contract long enough that existing customers are protected. Where that is happening, utilities are cutting or freezing residential rates and saying so on the record. Where it is not, people are right to object. Electricity prices are going down *today* in a number of large states because of data centers. 
On the environment: data centers overwhelming use natural gas today, which is the cleanest power source outside of nuclear, solar and wind. And the companies that are building the data centers are committed to carbon neutrality such that an equivalent amount of solar will likely be built. Maybe more importantly, the data centers need batteries to function effectively and these batteries can also sell energy back into the grid (which recently prevented blackouts in Texas). Over time, data centers will run on solar plus batteries. On the towns: Poverty in Quincy, WA fell from 29% to 6%. Data center taxes paid for a new high school, a hospital, a library, police and fire stations. This is happening in many left for dead former mill and farm towns that had no other bidder for the land. Data centers are actually reindustrializing parts of America and creating the kind of working-class jobs both parties have spent decades claiming to support. That should not be a partisan issue. Data centers can and should be awesome for America and they increasingly, overwhelmingly are. Supporting the outsourcing of data centers to China will likely age just as well as support for the outsourcing of high quality, blue collar manufacturing jobs to China has aged. When the facts change, I change my mind. I hope that reasonable people who had good faith reasons to oppose data centers at least consider updating their beliefs given the change in the facts over the last 18 months. This really matters for America. I will say I also think the idea of making data centers beautiful is a good one that has yet to be implemented. Data centers should be just as beautiful as Grand Central Station. We can learn a lot from the railroad buildout. Neoclassical revival ftw. Might write up open-weight AI tomorrow as this is equally essential to America.