This past month, the AI market repriced where value actually accrues. While Google pays SpaceX $920M a month for compute speed, and the U.S. government deems AI a national security asset, Palantir and NVIDIA just demonstrated that the real fortunes are being made at the application and infrastructure layers, not the models themselves.
📘 Your Top Substack Reads from June
Elon Was the Gas Pedal. Everyone Else Was the Brake.
Google agreed to pay SpaceX up to $30.4 billion for compute — $920 million a month from October 2026 through June 2029, for access to roughly 110,000 Nvidia GPUs. Elon built the capacity nobody else would underwrite, and now the second major AI player has lined up to pay handsomely for it.
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Regulate This: What the xAI National-Security Filing Is Really About
On June 16, DOJ moved to intervene in the NAACP’s suit against xAI and asked the court to throw it out — not because xAI complied (it concedes the turbines powering its Colossus supercomputer near Memphis lack a Clean Air Act permit), but because Grok is one of only four frontier AI models cleared for classified military work, and the Pentagon says cutting its power is a national-security risk.
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The Model Was Never the Asset: Palantir + NVIDIA Just Told You Where AI Value Actually Goes
On June 29, Palantir Technologies and NVIDIA announced an intelligent engine for deploying NVIDIA’s Nemotron open models in sovereign environments — classified, air-gapped, U.S. government agencies and critical infrastructure. By the July 1 close, PLTR was up 7.8% to $125.73 while much of the AI hardware complex sold off.
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⚡ June Deal & Market Highlights
OpenAI is Planning a $500B, 10 GW AI Data Center in Ohio
This is one of largest single AI infrastructure project ever announced. OpenAI is in discussions with NVIDIA (chips) and SB Energy (power/development). (Link)
Elon Musk just quietly spent ~$1B to buy APR Energy
This includes an 850 MW mobile-turbine fleet and refurbishing factory. Musk bought a distributed-power platform from Fortress Investment Group that can source stranded turbines, refurbish them, and deploy them where AI loads need megawatts today. (Link)
Brookfield quintupled its Bloom Energy commitment (from $5B to $25B)
Bloom Energy’s solid oxide fuel cells deliver dispatchable, on-site power without transmission constraints. That matters when data centers can’t wait 5+ years for utility interconnection. (Link)
KKR just went all-in on AI infrastructure with a $10 billion platform called Helix
NVIDIA is an anchor investor. This a purpose-built infrastructure company designed to own and operate the physical layer beneath AI: data centers, power, cooling, etc. (Link)
That’s the June wrap. See you at the end of July for more Electric Buzz highlights.
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