On August 3, 2026, Texas Governor Greg Abbott halted all data center projects in the Texas connection queue ..

In a letter to the PUCChairman Thomas Gleeson (Public Utility CCommission—the Texas regulatory agency for electric and water utilities) and ERCOTCEO Pablo Vegas (Electric Reliability Council of Texas—the operator of the Texas power grid—has instructed Abbott to conduct a comprehensive review of every data center as part of the connection process. No new projects will be approved until this audit is complete.

The reason for this is the staggering size of the connection waiting list:

It now includes over 1,800 projects with a total capacity of more than 474 gigawatts—more than five times Texas’s previous peak electricity consumption.

About 90% of the applications are for data centers.

In the future, anyone wishing to pass the review must disclose subsidies and tax benefits, electricity and water consumption, the planned power source, the ownership structure, and the impact on the community. Pure “behind-the-meter” projects—which generate their own electricity on-site and do not connect to ERCOT in the first place—are not affected.

What could this mean for Neoclouds?

The key point is that existing, already approved capacity remains unaffected—only future growth.

Bernstein sees $CIFR (-1.95%) , $CLSK (-1.21%) and $CORZ (+2.31%) as being most at risk, since their short-term expansion depends on new grid connections in Texas.

$RIOT (+4.42%) , $IREN (-2.14%) and $WULF (+1.36%) are considered relative beneficiaries, as they already have approved grid connections.

Even $CRWV (+1.16%)connections could be affected by delays, according to Bernstein.

In my view, this is the opportunity: As permits become scarcer, the value of what has already been approved increases.

Overall, it can be seen that approvals for future grid connections will become more difficult and the processes will take longer. Consequently, there will also be some rejections, which could pose a major risk for some Neocloud providers. Company valuations based on a 2027/28 pipeline thus become less predictable—and delays cost money in debt-financed construction projects, regardless of whether approval is ultimately granted.

Concrete progress is expected on August 20: On that date, ERCOT plans to apply to the PUC for an extension of the deadlines for the proceedings—specifically for the first round of approvals, the results of which were originally supposed to be available by August 7. There is currently no deadline by which the review must be completed—it will therefore be crucial whether the agency specifies a timeline or leaves the process open-ended.

Sources:

www.foley.com/insights/publications/2026/08/governor-abbott-pauses-texas-data-center-interconnections-and-calls-for-verification-and-audit-what-data-center-developers-need-to-know-now/

www.theblock.co/post/410545/bernstein-texas-data-center-audit

$NVDA (-2.96%)

Nvidia announced a new partnership model for Neoclouds (specialized GPU cloud providers): Nvidia acts as a financial backstop and commits to leasing back unused GPU capacity at a fixed price. In return, Nvidia receives a share of its partners’ cloud revenue in addition to hardware revenue.

• First partners: Firmus (170,000 GPUs in Indonesia) and Sharon AI (40,000 GB300 GPUs)
• Predecessors: similar deals with $CRWV (+1.16%) (6.3 billion $, 2025) and Lambda (1.5 billion $)

$NBIS (+1.01%)$USCTF (+1.06%)$CIFR (-1.95%)$WULF (+1.36%)$APLD (+1.1%)$KEEL (+1.03%)$CORZ (+2.31%)$HIVE (+2.08%)$BTDR (-5.2%)$CLSK (-1.21%)$MARA (+11.09%)$HUT (+0.54%)$RIOT (+4.42%)

$IREN (-2.14%) has so far not named as a participant—but has had a strategic partnership with Nvidia since May covering up to 5 GW of AI infrastructure, a $3.4 billion cloud contract , and Nvidia holds the right to purchase up to 2.1 billion IREN shares .

Adopting this model seems like a very logical step, since IREN will require extremely high investment costs (>$100 billion) to expand its entire pipeline.

In my view, this would be very positive in the short to medium term.

The biggest risk with $IREN (-2.14%) and other Neocloud providers is not demand, but rather the financing of their expansion plans, which run into the billions. A backstop from Nvidia would mitigate precisely this risk: Banks are much more willing to grant loans when the world’s largest chipmaker guarantees capacity utilization—this would provide significant security and more favorable, virtually lower-risk financing. However, the revenue share would directly impact the profit margin . In the long term, companies would thereby cede part of their overall potential to Nvidia—essentially trading long-term profitability for medium-term security.

Source: https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/nvidia-acts-as-backstop-for-customer-gpus-in-return-for-cut-of-cloud-revenue/

$IREN (-2.14%)
$CIFR (-1.95%)
$NBIS (+1.01%)

Maybe one or the other exciting value for you?

I am in $IREN (-2.14%) , $CIFR (-1.95%) but $NBIS (+1.01%) I also find it exciting in the long term. 👌

$ORCL (-0.66%) Oracle

$CRWV (+1.16%) CoreWeave

$NBIS (+1.01%) Nebius

$IREN (-2.14%) Irish

$GLXY (+0.22%) Galaxy Digital

$APLD (+1.1%) Applied Digital

$RIOT (+4.42%) Riot Platforms

$CIFR (-1.95%) Cipher Mining

$MARA (+11.09%) Mara

$GDS (-0.76%) GDS

$CORZ (+2.31%) Core Scientific

$CLSK (-1.21%) CleanSpark

$WULF (+1.36%) TeraWulf

$BTBT (+2.61%) Bit Digital

$HUT (+0.54%) Hat 8

$BTDR (-5.2%) Bitdeer

$BITF (+1.03%) Bitfarms

$VNET (-2.23%) VNET

$HIVE (+2.08%) Hive Digital

$WYFI (+0%) WhiteFiber

$DGX (-1.42%) Digi Power X

$SLNH Soluna

$MIGI Mawson Infrastructure

$IREN (-2.14%)
$BTC (-0.36%)

$IREN (-2.14%) started earlier than its competitors. The potential is incredible in the truest sense of the word.

"We own the entire stack - land, electricity, substations, data centers and computers. We don't lease anything. This means lower costs, higher performance and long-term reliability. Currently, GPUs consume less than 2% of our total energy portfolio."

CEO & Founder Daniel Roberts

$IREN (-2.14%) Vertical DC integration

What does the vertical integration of data centers mean for $IREN (-2.14%) ? We take a look at this article from DataXConnect: " $NBIS (+1.01%) will be a DataOne tenant for the next 10 years" (1). $NBIS (+1.01%) provides the designs for the construction by DataOne. DataOne owns power, land, substations, transmission infrastructure, backup power generation and facility operations!

$NBIS (+1.01%) pays colocation to DataOne! The 3.7 billion that Google/Fluidstack $WULF (+1.36%) pays for 200 MW (2)? The 3 billion that Google/Fluidstack pays $CIFR (-1.95%) pays for 168 MW (3)?

$NBIS (+1.01%) DataOne is paying around 5.45 billion for their 300 MW. It is probably more, as DataOne has significantly more influence than $WULF (+1.36%) / $CIFR (-1.95%) as DataOne/BSO operates 240 data centers worldwide; for comparison: $EQIX (+0.85%) (75 billion mcap) has 270 data centers. In addition, DataOne has additional capital expenditures for gas turbines behind the meter and will likely pass at least some of the costs on to $NBIS (+1.01%) pass on. For $IREN (-2.14%) which has already paid most of these costs at lower prices, this is largely pure margin!

From the Neoclouds $ORCL (-0.66%) , $CRWV (+1.16%) , $NBIS (+1.01%) , $IREN (-2.14%) . Is $IREN (-2.14%) the only ones who own their own land, power, data centers and electrical infrastructure! $CRWV (+1.16%) was lucky and signed a contract with $CORZ (+2.31%) when $CORZ (+2.31%) was on the verge of bankruptcy. He also secured $ORCL (-0.66%) Crusoe's electricity when Crusoe failed at Bitcoin mining. $CRWV (+1.16%) at least recognizes the weakness and tries to $CORZ (+2.31%) to buy up.

1) https://dataxconnect.com/insights-dataones-new-300mw-data-center-with-nebius-signals-americas-insatiable-appetite-for-ai/

2) https://investors.terawulf.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/112/terawulf-signs-200-mw-10-year-ai-hosting-agreements-with

3) https://investors.ciphermining.com/news-releases/news-release-details/cipher-mining-signs-168-mw-10-year-ai-hosting-agreement/

$CIFR (-1.95%)
$CRWV (+1.16%)
$NBIS (+1.01%)
$GOOGL (+0.4%)
$GOOG (+0.32%)
$MSFT (+0.01%)
$META (+0.42%)
$ORCL (-0.66%)
$NVDA (-2.96%)
$WULF (+1.36%)

$BTC (-0.36%)
$ETH (-1.88%)

For those who are interested:

https://bitcointreasuries.net/

Entities holding >100 ETH in their treasury:

https://strategicethreserve.xyz/

$BMNR (-0.33%)
$SBET (-0.59%)
$MSTR (+0.06%)
$SWC
$3350 (+0.04%)
$CLSK (-1.21%)
COIN (-0.66%)
$MARA (+11.09%)
$RIOT (+4.42%)
$BTBT (+2.61%)
$ETHM
$CORZ (+2.31%)
$BTDR (-5.2%)
$GLXY (+0.22%)
$CIFR (-1.95%)
$IREN (-2.14%)
$DJT (+4.92%)

$IREN (-2.14%)

A large part of the investment thesis of $IREN (-2.14%) is linked to the company's ambitious expansion into the fast-growing AI/HPC sector.

While $IREN (-2.14%) Bitcoin mining yields remain exceptional, performance in this segment is heavily influenced by factors outside of the company's control - namely price, network difficulty and ASIC prices. $BTC (-0.36%) -price, network difficulty and ASIC prices.

Today's demand for AI computing power is only a fraction of what will be needed.

The reasons are:

- AI switches from text to real-time video, 3D and full scene understanding

- AI co-pilots integrated into every productivity and development tool

- Autonomous robots, vehicles and smart factories

- AI-generated content on a large scale: ads, movies, virtual worlds

- Constant retraining of boundary models, 100 times more computationally intensive

Access to AI computing power and related infrastructure will be critical for major tech companies to defend and grow their multi-billion dollar valuations. These players are outbidding each other, not only to secure capacity, but also to prevent others from obtaining it. Whoever controls the most computing power capacity and supporting infrastructure will gain a massive advantage over the other.

We have already seen this in the race for $NVDA (-2.96%) chips, the biggest bottleneck in the AI value chain today. But this bottleneck is shifting as computing capacity becomes increasingly constrained by access to AI-optimized energy infrastructure.

And here, in my opinion $IREN (-2.14%) that has more than 3 GW of AI-optimized infrastructure will benefit. It takes time to build, contracts for infrastructure and power connection contracts are becoming more difficult, and the land and locations required are becoming more expensive, $IREN (-2.14%) has recognized this early on.

Increase in hash rate since 2023:

$IREN (-2.14%) available today with $IREN (-2.14%) AI Cloud has $NVDA (-2.96%) H100 and H200 GPU clusters.

These clusters are powered 100% by renewable energy.

$MARA (+11.09%)
$CLSK (-1.21%)
$BTC (-0.36%)
$MSTR (+0.06%)
$RIOT (+4.42%)
$CRWV (+1.16%)
$META (+0.42%)
$AMZN (+1.88%)
$GOOGL (+0.4%)
$NVDA (-2.96%)
$MSFT (+0.01%)
$WULF (+1.36%)
$CIFR (-1.95%)
$CORZ (+2.31%)
$BTDR (-5.2%)

$IREN (-2.14%)
$HUT
$HUT (+0.54%)
$CLSK (-1.21%)
$CORZ (+2.31%)
$BITF (+1.03%)
$HIVE (+2.08%)
$WULF (+1.36%)
$RIOT (+4.42%)
$MARA (+11.09%)
$BTDR (-5.2%)
$BTC (-0.36%)

$IREN (-2.14%) 🚀

Revenue growth in AI cloud services could be a harbinger of much larger AI data center deals.

$IREN (-2.14%) is fast becoming a force to be reckoned with in the data center industry. There are only a handful of developers with > 1 GW of secured power - let alone close to 3 GW!

Very exciting company and KBV Friday ≤ 1