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Matt Phillips1/15/26

Talen soars on new power plant purchases in giant grid feeding Data Center Alley

Talen Energy soared early Thursday after the Houston-based utility said it had bought power plants in the massive PJM exchange, which has seen rising consumer prices linked to AI infrastructure.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday on how the run-up in prices has been a growing political headache for data center developers.

Yesterday, PJM cut its forecast for peak summer of 2027 demand, suggesting that data center electricity demand going forward may have been overstated.

But Talen’s purchase of natural gas-fueled plants — one in Indiana and two in Ohio — for $3.45 billion in cash and stock suggests the company remains bullish on the AI build-out, especially within the 13-state PJM grid. The nonprofit power grid serves 67 million people from New Jersey to Kentucky, and includes key areas of relatively high data center density such as Ohio and Virginia.

Early Thursday, Talen shares were up by the most since last July. This reaction to the latest in a string of acquisitions suggests Talen executives have an incentive to stay on offense.

Talen Energy Continues Portfolio Expansion with Acquisition of Additional High-Quality PJM Natural Gas Assets from Energy Capital Partners

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday on how the run-up in prices has been a growing political headache for data center developers.

Yesterday, PJM cut its forecast for peak summer of 2027 demand, suggesting that data center electricity demand going forward may have been overstated.

But Talen’s purchase of natural gas-fueled plants — one in Indiana and two in Ohio — for $3.45 billion in cash and stock suggests the company remains bullish on the AI build-out, especially within the 13-state PJM grid. The nonprofit power grid serves 67 million people from New Jersey to Kentucky, and includes key areas of relatively high data center density such as Ohio and Virginia.

Early Thursday, Talen shares were up by the most since last July. This reaction to the latest in a string of acquisitions suggests Talen executives have an incentive to stay on offense.

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J. Edward Moreno7h

Fermi plunges after CFO, CEO depart

Fermi is down more than 18% in premarket trading after it disclosed in regulatory filings that its now former CEO, Toby Neugebauer, and its CFO, Miles Everson, departed on Friday and Monday, respectively.

The company dubbed its executive shake-up as “Fermi 2.0.” In addition to ousting Neugebauer and Everson, Fermi added Marius Haas as chairman of its board and Jeffrey S. Stein as director of the board.

Fermi, which was cofounded by former Energy Secretary Rick Perry, plans to build nuclear energy infrastructure to power data centers. But the cost to build out its power site is mounting while it still doesn’t have any customers secured, according its annual report released on March 30.

In September, Fermi announced that it had entered into a nonbinding letter of intent with a tenant to lease a portion of its Project Matador power grid site in Amarillo, Texas. That contract was terminated in December.

The company, which went public in October, is down about 75% from its IPO through Friday’s close.

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J. Edward Moreno9h

Marvell and Google reportedly in talks to develop new AI chips

Marvell Technology rose nearly 6% in premarket trading Monday after The Information reported over the weekend that the chip company is in talks with Google to develop two ‌new chips to run AI models.

Broadcom, which counts Google as its most important customer (having developed multiple generations of its TPUs), is down 1% as Marvell muscles in on its turf.

However, the custom chip giant still appears poised to benefit from Google’s chip deployment for years to come. Earlier this month, Broadcom disclosed in a regulatory filing that it had entered into a long-term agreement with Google to supply future generations of AI accelerator chips. That filing also revealed that Broadcom, Google, and Anthropic expanded a partnership that will see the Claude developer access 3.5 gigawatts of AI compute capacity beginning in 2027.

Marvell’s reported new business would also be the latest in a series of wins for custom chips in general. Nvidia, the most valuable chip designer and GPU specialist, is also lower in premarket trading.

Google, with help from its custom chip designers, has been increasingly positioning itself as a competitor to chip giants.

Marvell, meanwhile, appears to have gained pride of place as an Nvidia partner while gaining exposure to the custom chip business that’s impressed Wall Street (and downstream AI customers). On March 31, Nvidia announced that it would invest $2 billion in Marvell as part of a strategic partnership, and the stock has been on a tear since.

Google in Talks With Marvell to Build New AI Chips for Inference

Google in Talks With Marvell to Build New AI Chips for Inference

However, the custom chip giant still appears poised to benefit from Google’s chip deployment for years to come. Earlier this month, Broadcom disclosed in a regulatory filing that it had entered into a long-term agreement with Google to supply future generations of AI accelerator chips. That filing also revealed that Broadcom, Google, and Anthropic expanded a partnership that will see the Claude developer access 3.5 gigawatts of AI compute capacity beginning in 2027.

Marvell’s reported new business would also be the latest in a series of wins for custom chips in general. Nvidia, the most valuable chip designer and GPU specialist, is also lower in premarket trading.

Google, with help from its custom chip designers, has been increasingly positioning itself as a competitor to chip giants.

Marvell, meanwhile, appears to have gained pride of place as an Nvidia partner while gaining exposure to the custom chip business that’s impressed Wall Street (and downstream AI customers). On March 31, Nvidia announced that it would invest $2 billion in Marvell as part of a strategic partnership, and the stock has been on a tear since.

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Claire Yubin Oh & Tom Jones9h

ASTS drops after BlueBird 7 launched into an incorrect orbit

AST SpaceMobile dropped 13% in premarket trading on Monday after the space internet company updated that its BlueBird 7 satellite, carried by Blue Origin’s New Glenn vehicle, was put into an incorrect position and will now be taken out of orbit.

“During the New Glenn 3 mission, BlueBird 7 was placed into a lower than planned orbit by the upper stage of the launch vehicle. While the satellite separated from the launch vehicle and powered on, the altitude is too low to sustain operations with its on-board thruster technology and will de-orbited. The cost of the satellite is expected to be recovered under the company’s insurance policy,” the company said in a press release.

Launched Sunday, April 19, BlueBird 7 would have been AST SpaceMobile’s eighth deployed satellite into low-Earth orbit as it races to catch up with SpaceX’s Starlink to put up the first satellite constellation capable of providing 5G connectivity anywhere in the world. The company continues to target approximately 45 satellites in orbit by the end of the year. (For context, SpaceX currently has more than 9,500 satellites deployed since 2019, though ASTS’s network plans to depend on less than 100 larger, more sophisticated satellites that individually gather signals more efficiently than Starlink’s mega constellation model.)

The incorrect positioning of the launch vehicle from Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin rocket New Glenn has been blamed for the failure, though the cost of the satellite is expected to be recovered under AST SpaceMobile’s insurance policy.

For Blue Origin itself, the mission did have one major silver lining, as it successfully reused one of its New Glenn rockets for the first time ever, per TechCrunch. The New Glenn model was the result of a decade-long, multibillion-dollar development and was hampered by delays last year. However, as one of the largest reusable vehicles in the world alongside SpaceX’s Falcon 9, it’s also seen as a key way that Bezos’ company can challenge Elon Musk’s outer space supremacy.

SpaceX rocket launch chart — Sherwood News

Separately, Bezos’ main company and the source of the bulk of his wealth, Amazon, announced last week that it was acquiring Globalstar in a move to join the direct-to-device competition starting in 2028.

Nate Becker, J. Edward Moreno

Oil jumps, stock futures fall as tensions rise and US fires shots at Iranian ship in Strait of Hormuz

The state of the war in Iran is at its most tenuous point since the ceasefire began.

Strait of Hormuz

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