Episode 17: AI’s Battle for Power Who Owns the Megawatts, and Who Still Has to Build Them Power is now the AI build-out’s bottleneck, and the market is starting to sort the companies that already own capacity from the ones still building it with borrowed money. Tim Hardwick looks at SpaceX’s proposed $24 billion gas plant in Texas, local votes against data centres, six-year turbine waits and CoreWeave’s results. He also covers hotter October inflation, a December Fed hike now fully priced, and how he has been trading a volatile week. The episode ends with breaking news: Jensen Huang has stepped down as Nvidia’s chief executive. Key points Power capacity falls into three groups: already operating, under contract, and still a proposal waiting on funding, permits and equipment. Each carries a different kind of risk.Voters in 40 of 41 local contests on 3 November favoured limits on data centres. UBS estimates that pauses could affect around 30% of expected US capacity additions in 2028.Reuters, citing Wood Mackenzie, reports that new US gas turbines now take around six years to deliver, pushing developers towards second-hand and converted units.SpaceX has proposed a gas-fired power plant and supercomputing facility at Starbase, with an estimated $24 billion of investment in its initial phases. The Financial Times reports that Anthropic has committed about $3.4 billion for 1.7 GW of gas-fired generators.Norway has paused new grid connection reservations for data centres while it designs a licensing scheme.Microsoft and Alphabet both still rent outside capacity, so scarcity rewards the right capacity in the right place on the right contract, not every data centre owner.October CPI rose 0.4% on the month, with core up 0.3%, both a tenth above forecast. CME FedWatch now shows a December hike fully priced, and Fed officials Waller, Logan and Goolsbee were vocal this week.CoreWeave’s net interest expense rose to $846 million from $310 million a year earlier. It has more than 1.7 GW of power active against more than 4.6 GW contracted.China’s pause on rare earth and battery technology controls now runs to 10 January 2027, ahead of the Trump–Xi meeting at APEC.Anthropic set an indicative IPO range valuing it at up to $1.4 trillion, and TSMC approved up to $1 billion of investment across Anthropic and OpenAI.Tim covers how he traded the sell-off: process over outcome, sorting his watchlist by layer, and keeping position sizes smaller around stacked events.Chapters 00:04 The AI Build-Out’s Power Bottleneck02:40 Market Turbulence and the Fed’s Next Move06:25 Trading Through Uncertainty09:31 Who Owns the Megawatts?14:41 Gas, Oil, and Global Supply Risks16:16 What to Watch: Earnings and NVIDIA19:46 Breaking: NVIDIA’s CEO Steps Down Read more The Weekly Outlook, In the Spotlight and the Market Pulse articles are free at qfmarkets.substack.com. Get in touch Got a question for PRISM? Email podcast@quantumfields.ai Tags AI Supercycle, AI infrastructure, data centres, power, natural gas, gas turbines, SpaceX, xAI, Anthropic, Anthropic IPO, CoreWeave, Constellation Energy, Microsoft, Alphabet, Nvidia, Jensen Huang, TSMC, Norway, data centre moratorium, Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh, Christopher Waller, inflation, CPI, interest rates, rare earths, trading, trading psychology, risk management, investing, QF Markets For information and education only. Not investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any financial instrument. (00:04) - The AI Build-Out’s Power Bottleneck (02:40) - Market Turbulence and the Fed’s Next Move (06:25) - Trading Through Uncertainty (09:31) - Who Owns the Megawatts? (14:41) - Gas, Oil, and Global Supply Risks (16:16) - What to Watch: Earnings and NVIDIA (19:46) - Breaking: NVIDIA’s CEO Steps Down