THE GRID WILL BREAK FIRST
By Shanaka Anslem Perera
Texas just received requests for 226 gigawatts of data center power.
The entire state runs on 85 gigawatts.
Here is what nobody is telling you.
ERCOT's interconnection queue nearly quadrupled in twelve months. From 63 gigawatts in December 2024 to 226 gigawatts by November 2025. Seventy-three percent is data centers. The AI infrastructure buildout is now the largest in American history.
But here is the number that changes everything: 3%.
Of the 226 gigawatts requested, only 7.5 gigawatts are actually connected and operating. Fifty-seven percent of the queue has not even submitted planning studies. Joshua Rhodes at UT Austin called it "laughable." His estimate for what actually gets built by 2030? Twenty to thirty gigawatts. Ten percent of the queue.
The rest is vapor.
Meanwhile, Oracle just delayed OpenAI data centers from 2027 to 2028. The company carries $108 billion in debt. Negative $10 billion free cash flow. Credit default swaps at 126 to 141 basis points, the highest since 2020. And it owes OpenAI 4.5 gigawatts of capacity under a $300 billion contract.
OpenAI loses $9 billion per year. It must grow revenue fivefold in two years just to pay Oracle.
The circular financing everyone fears? We verified it. The $610 billion figure circulating through financial media is inflated tenfold. Actual executed investments: $63 to $70 billion. Still unprecedented. Still concentrated risk. But not the imminent collapse some predict.
The real constraint is not financial. It is physical.
Electrons cannot be printed. Transmission lines take a decade. Generation capacity takes five to seven years. The hyperscalers have the capital. They do not have the kilowatts.
This is not a bubble that pops. It is a ceiling that binds.
Data center vacancy: 1.9%. Pre-leasing: 84%. The demand is real.
The timeline to meet it is not.
Position accordingly.
Read the full article - https://open.substack.com/pub/shanakaanslemperera/p/226-gigawatts-of-nothing-the-physics?r=6p7b5o&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
🛢📈 — Reuters reports that oil is approaching $100 per barrel following the latest exchange of attacks between Americans and Iranians on oil tankers.
▶️The price of Brent crude has risen to $97.07 per barrel, while American WTI crude has risen to $92.28. In the past week, Brent has risen by 7.8%, while WTI has risen by nearly 10%.
▶️On Saturday, U.S. forces attacked three Iranian oil tankers, one of which was stationed near the island of Kharg, a key center for Iranian oil exports. In response, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced attacks on three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and three more U.S. ships.
▶️In this context, traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has sharply declined. Over the past 10 days, an average of only 10 cargo ships have transited the strait per day – the lowest level since May.
The WHO now states on its website:
Vaccination against COVID-19 can trigger multiple sclerosis through cross-reactive CD4+-T cells that recognize the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 and myelin peptides.
In other words: Your own immune system destroys the nerve pathways and then attacks your brain and spinal cord.