Notes from three finance panels at PowerUp Data Centers — Investment in McLean, Virginia: capital for AI infrastructure is abundant, but it flows to projects with firm, permitted, financeable power.
Anthropic’s $417B compute commitments, SpaceX’s $40B GPU financing, PJM’s reliability warning, Google’s 1 GW virtual power plant and Exelon’s generation pivot.
FERC rejects PJM’s data center curtailment plan, a DOE emergency order in PJM, NERC’s first standards for large loads, Utah nuclear pushback and Meta’s tax credits.
Google backs 890 MW of nuclear uprates, PJM’s first fast-track projects, Amazon drops data center NDAs, and why the grid will cost more.
Field notes from the SOAR Summit 2026 in Corbin, Kentucky: fiber, power, workforce training and what the plenary said — and didn’t — about data centers.
FERC pauses PJM’s emergency capacity plan, PJM’s new queue opens at 169 GW, MISO pairs loads with generation, and old plants become AI power sites.
PJM’s head of planning on a self-filtering queue, later-arriving load, fast lanes for ready projects, and a single study process for load and generation.
This week: FERC enforces the PJM queue as written, Amazon locks in backup generators, the Army opens bases to power developers, and AI financing meets reality.
Texas softens its large-load interconnection rule, Microsoft keeps its options open on Virginia cost allocation, NERC concedes the rulebook was built for generators, gas plants trade hands, and $3.9B goes to compute you can truck to the power.
PJM moves to keep large loads connected through grid disturbances, Pennsylvania opens rates and curtailment, gas turbines sell out to 2032, and $4.4B moves into power conversion.
