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The Markets Desk — Week 45 · Fri 6 Nov 2026
Compute / Build-out · week to 8 May 2026

The build-out, floor by floor, one week at a time.

From models at the top to permits at the bottom: what switched on, what was announced and what got stuck in the week from 2 May 2026 to 8 May 2026. Every mark is a dated row with its source.

A model of an AI campus hall, its copper gantry crane over rows of machines.
The build-out mapRows, never forecasts
Switched on
Nothing filed this week
Announced
Compute market 1 · Data centres 3
Stuck
Nothing filed this week · gone quiet: State commercial power sales
Biggest constraint move
Nothing filed this week
Next due
Helios · "1H26"
This week
0 · 4 · 0
switched on · announced · stuck, counted per floor and never added across families · 6 series not read
Hover or tap
Each floor is a layer of the build-out; each mark one dated row of the week
Solid: switched on, as filed or measured. Hollow: announced. Hanging: stuck. A faint stub: a series we list but cannot read.

Models and demand

    Money

    • Data-centre debt filed: not collected

    Compute market

    • Nvidia signs a $3.4B, five-year AI cloud contract with IREN for air-cooled Blackwell GPUs at Childress (2026-05-07)

    Accelerators and fab

      Memory

      • HBM statements: kept by hand
      • Korean memory exports: key parked

      Optics

        Data centres

        • Stated: hut8 · contracted (2026-05-06)
        • Stated: iren · contracted · Existing data centers (Nvidia contract) (2026-05-07)
        • Promised: iren · delivered · Horizon 1–4 (Microsoft) (2026-05-07)

        Power and grid (context)

        • State commercial power sales: stale
        • Transformer and turbine imports: key parked

        Permits and land

        • Local votes against: kept by hand

        Floor by floor

        Models and demand

        Nothing filed this week.

        Money

        Nothing filed this week.

        Not read this week: Data-centre debt filed (not collected)

        Compute market

        Accelerators and fab

        Nothing filed this week.

        Memory

        Nothing filed this week.

        Not read this week: HBM statements (kept by hand) · Korean memory exports (key parked)

        Optics

        Nothing filed this week.

        Data centres

        Power and grid (context)

        Nothing filed this week.

        Not read this week: State commercial power sales (stale) · Transformer and turbine imports (key parked)

        Permits and land

        Nothing filed this week.

        Not read this week: Local votes against (kept by hand)

        The pipeline, Texas · three ladders, never added

        What the campuses filed, what ERCOT counts in its own queue, and what Epoch estimates. Each is its own family, kept apart.

        Filed as energized
        0 MW
        across the 7 Texas campuses on the register
        Promised by now, not yet filed
        none
        Campus · stage
        Hover or tap a bar
        Solid is filed as happened; hollow is promised. Height is the largest stated figure; each basis is listed apart, never added.
        • Abernathy: Contracted: 240 MW gross, 168 MW critical IT, filed 28 Oct 2025; Delivered: 168 MW critical IT, promised in the second half of 2026
        • Barber Lake: Contracted: 244 MW up to (a ceiling), 168 MW critical IT, filed 25 Sept 2025; Delivered: 168 MW critical IT, promised by September 2026
        • Beacon Point: Contracted: 352 MW IT load, filed 6 May 2026
        • CoreWeave Denton: Contracted: 260 MW critical IT, filed 27 Feb 2025
        • Helios: Contracted: 526 MW critical IT, filed 5 Aug 2025; Delivered: 260 MW critical IT, promised 2027
        • IREN Childress: Contracted: 200 MW IT load, 60 MW up to (a ceiling), filed 7 May 2026; Delivered: no megawatts stated, promised by year-end
        • Stargate Abilene: Under construction: 1,200 MW basis unstated, filed 21 May 2025; Energized: 1,200 MW basis unstated, promised in mid-2026
        Drawn against asked
        9,042 MW / 9,042 MW
        Approval to energize (12 Mar 2026) against approval to energize (12 Mar 2026). ERCOT's own buckets, each at its own date.
        Bucket
        Hover or tap a ring
        Each ring's area is its megawatts. Buckets are ERCOT's own, separate counts, not a running total.
        • Approval to energize: 9,042 MW, ERCOT, 12 Mar 2026
        Epoch’s estimate
        —
        Not read yet: the first Epoch AI snapshot

        Demand meter · each grid against itself a year earlier

        Electricity each grid operator served in the week to 8 May 2026, from EIA’s hourly grid data, against the same seven days a year earlier. Weather moves these from week to week, so a change on the year is not all data centres. Each grid is its own figure; none is added to another.

        • PJM (Mid-Atlantic and northern Virginia)13,869 GWh—
        • ERCOT (Texas)8,629 GWh—
        • Southern Company (Georgia and Alabama)4,010 GWh—
        • MISO (Midwest)11,152 GWh—
        • Tennessee Valley Authority2,709 GWh—
        • Duke Energy Carolinas1,766 GWh—
        • Southwest Power Pool5,122 GWh—
        • Arizona Public Service685 GWh—

        Power sold to commercial customers, May 2026

        The closest public read of data-centre load, from EIA’s monthly survey of utilities. It lands about two months after the month it counts.

        • Virginia7,234 GWh+4.2%
        • Texas15,538 GWh+10.0%
        • Georgia4,938 GWh+4.1%
        • Ohio5,192 GWh+13.5%
        • Arizona3,562 GWh+12.8%
        Henry Hub gas
        $2.94 per MMBtu
        May 2026 average, from EIA’s Short-Term Energy Outlook · −5.8% on the year. The fuel behind most new generation: context only.
        Gas generation due in 2026-05 that arrived on time (EIA-860M)
        Turbine backlogLast reading 28 Oct 2026
        Grid equipment pricesLast reading 1 Sept 2026
        Weekly grid demandLast reading 30 Oct 2026
        State commercial power salesLast reading 1 Aug 2026
        Henry Hub gas priceLast reading 1 Sept 2026
        Transformer and turbine importskey parked
        Local votes againstkept by hand

        What the map reads, and how fresh it is

        • Model releases4 Nov 2026fresh
        • Provider incidents5 Nov 2026fresh
        • Model retirements14 May 2028fresh
        • Data-centre debt filed—not collected
        • Taiwan monthly revenue1 Sept 2026fresh
        • MLPerf rounds16 Sept 2026fresh
        • Export controls20 Nov 2026fresh
        • HBM statements—kept by hand
        • Korean memory exports—key parked
        • Optics backlog3 Sept 2026fresh
        • Data-centre construction spend1 Sept 2026fresh
        • Turbine backlog28 Oct 2026fresh
        • Grid equipment prices1 Sept 2026fresh
        • Weekly grid demand30 Oct 2026fresh
        • State commercial power sales1 Aug 2026stale
        • Henry Hub gas price1 Sept 2026fresh
        • Transformer and turbine imports—key parked
        • Local votes against—kept by hand

        How the map is kept

        • The week runs Saturday to Friday, the same week as the compute board.
        • Switched on means filed or measured: a filing that says energized or delivered, a price the Tape wrote, a figure a statistics office published.
        • Announced means a promise, an order or a deal: hollow until something switches on.
        • Stuck means a date moved, a promise came due unmet, a price feed went quiet, or a rule or vote added a constraint.
        • Filed figures, ERCOT’s meter, Epoch’s estimate and EIA’s generator data are separate families and are never added together.
        • A floor with no rows says so. A series we list but cannot read shows as not read, with the reason.
        • Power and the grid are here as context for the build-out. Nothing on this page is a trade idea.