Chevron Advances Low-Carbon Push with Microsoft Data Center Partnership

Targa Resources reported a record second quarter on August 6, with adjusted EBITDA of $1.60 billion, up 38% from a year earlier, and management now expects full-year results near the top of its guidance range. Adjusted EBITDA also rose 14% from the first quarter, helped by Permian gas volumes that added over 450 million cubic feet of daily throughput, while NGL pipeline, fractionation and LPG export volumes all set records with the help of Train 11, a new fractionator in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The East Driver processing plant serving the Midland side of the Permian started up late in the quarter and ahead of schedule, and on July 16 Targa declared a $1.25 per share quarterly dividend, 25% above the payout for the second quarter of 2025, payable August 14 to holders of record on July 31, while spending $80 million buying back shares during the quarter. Targa plans about $4.5 billion in net growth spending this year, and its consolidated debt stood at $19,578 million on June 30, with about $3.2 billion of liquidity as a cushion; in July it extended its receivables securitization facility to July 30, 2027 and raised the size to as much as $800 million. Management tied the higher outlook partly to strong marketing margin and optimization work in the first two quarters, income that can be lumpy, while lower natural gas prices trimmed gathering margins and Waha curtailments showed producers can pull back when local prices turn ugly.

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Energy Transition & Power Demand ▲

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US Hyperscalers to Spend Up to $725 Billion on AI Infrastructure in 2026

The top five US hyperscalers are projecting a combined capital expenditure of $660 billion to $725 billion for 2026, nearly double their 2025 outlays, as the AI build-out shifts from software to physical infrastructure. Microsoft is guiding for roughly $175 billion in adjusted capital expenditure for both FY2026 and FY2027, with two-thirds of quarterly spend going to short-lived assets like CPUs and GPUs and the rest to long-lived data center infrastructure, and it added 1 gigawatt of capacity in Q3 FY2026, doubling its global footprint in two years. Amazon AWS has raised its 2026 capex guidance to approximately $220 billion, with CEO Andy Jassy saying AI capacity is expected to remain constrained through 2027 and contracted demand extending into 2028. Meta saw profit drop 14% in Q2 2026 despite a 28% revenue increase as its build-out, including a 1 gigawatt data center in Ohio and a Louisiana facility that could scale to 5 gigawatts, compressed margins, while Alphabet raised its 2026 capex guidance to as much as $205 billion and its Google Cloud backlog more than doubled year-over-year to $240 billion. The Stargate joint venture involving Oracle, OpenAI and others targets up to $500 billion in infrastructure investment by 2029, and Oracle's FY2026 capex reached $55.7 billion, more than doubling from the previous year.

AMZN ▲GOOG ▲META ▼MSFT ▲ORCL ▲

Artificial Intelligence ▲Energy Transition & Power Demand ▲Cloud & Digital Infrastructure ▲

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Saudi Arabia issues two air-raid warnings over Riyadh after new Houthi attacks

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, faced two air-raid warnings in the early hours of today, September 19, marking the first time the country's capital has seen such alerts since the period when war between the United States and Iran intensified in March and April. Saudi Arabia's early-warning system issued an emergency alert in Riyadh at 4:00 a.m. and again at 6:00 a.m., without disclosing further details. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's civil defense authority said the danger had ended shortly after both alerts. Other areas across the country received similar warnings throughout the past night, including Jeddah and Yanbu on the Red Sea, as well as Farasan Island in the Red Sea. The warnings came amid a new wave of attacks Saudi Arabia has faced in September, with the Iran-backed Houthis based in Yemen striking cities in western Saudi Arabia, including energy infrastructure, over the past week. The Saudi government said a drone attack from Iraq, home to several Iran-backed armed groups, forced the East-West oil pipeline to halt operations. In addition, attacks on the pipeline and Iran's closure of the Strait of Hormuz have sharply reduced Saudi Arabia's oil exports and created further problems for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom's leader. The renewed conflict also risks affecting Saudi Arabia's efforts to attract investment and tourists, part of its push to diversify the country's economic structure. In October, Riyadh is scheduled to host Saudi Arabia's flagship investment conference, the Future Investment Initiative, with the 2026 annual gathering set to welcome several senior Wall Street executives, including JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Jamie Dimon and David Solomon of Goldman Sachs Group.

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