Everything's bigger in Texas

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Hey,

Good afternoon from Copenhagen, hope you all are going well. Here’s all the news from the past week that’s fit to print from my vantage point. LMK what I missed.

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ONE STORY IN A SENTENCE AND A CHART

• Texas overtook California in terms of utility-scale solar capacity last year. Link.

NEWS, DATA, AND HEADLINES

• Tesla updated its Semi truck website with final production specifications before customer deliveries begin in the coming months. The Standard Range trim offers 325 miles of range at 82,000 lbs with 1.7 kWh per mile consumption and up to 60% charge in 30 minutes via MCS 3.2, while the Long Range trim provides 500 miles of range with 1.2MW peak charging speed and 23,000 lbs curb weight. Link.

• President Trump announced Project Vault, a strategic stockpile for critical minerals seeded with a $10 billion Export-Import Bank loan and $1.67 billion in private capital. More than a dozen companies, including General Motors, Stellantis, Boeing, Google, and GE Vernova, have committed to work on the stockpile as the U.S. tries to reduce reliance on Chinese rare earths and other metals. Link.

• Alphabet announced it would double its capital expenditures to $185 billion compared to last year, capping a week in which Big Tech firms pledged to spend half-a-trillion dollars on AI infrastructure with massive implications for power markets globally. Further, a new Cleanview report noted that while data center developers publicly mention renewables, nuclear, or hydrogen, permitting documents for 2025-2026 construction indicate they are largely opting for gas-fired power, with CEO Sundar Pichai stating "the top question is definitely around compute capacity [and] all the constraints — be it power, land, supply chain constraints." Link. Link.

• Siemens Energy announced a $1 billion investment in U.S. manufacturing of gas turbines and power grid equipment, including expanding four plants, restarting another, and building a new factory as well. Link.

• Amazon outbid Puget Sound Energy in an auction for a 1.2-gigawatt solar farm in Oregon, paying $83 million compared to PSE's final offer of $82 million, leaving the utility concerned about competition with AI companies for energy resources. The project would span 9,442 acres with equal battery storage capacity and could become one of the largest solar projects in the U.S. Link.

• Consumer Reports' list of top vehicle picks for the year features exclusively hybrids (or vehicles available as hybrids) or electric vehicles for the first time. The magazine emphasized that endorsements extend to all versions of winning vehicles, noting "the hybrid option is often quieter and more refined at speed, and its improved fuel efficiency usually saves you money in the long term." Link.

• Traxys signed a binding 10-year offtake agreement to buy 100% of the lithium carbonate from Lilac Solutions' first commercial site at Utah's Great Salt Lake, where the startup is commercializing a direct lithium extraction (DLE) process technology that performed well at pilot and demonstration scale. Link.

• Trafigura signed a binding 6-year offtake agreement to buy 100% of the biogas-derived sustainable aviation fuel from Syzygy's first commercial site in Uruguay, where the startup is commercializing a photocatalytic alternative to syngas production. Link.

• A federal judge ruled that the 924-megawatt Sunrise Wind project off the coast of New York can resume construction after the Trump administration's December stop-work order halted progress on the nearly halfway complete wind farm. Judge Royce Lamberth found the administration's national security justification insufficient after reviewing classified reports and granted Ørsted a preliminary injunction, making this the fifth such court order in recent weeks allowing offshore wind projects to restart. Link.

• Ohio's Power Siting Board is poised to block Open Road Renewables' $98 million, 94-megawatt Crossroads Solar Grazing Center in Morrow County despite at least 34 fabricated public comments opposing the project. Canary Media verified only one of 34 names claiming to be local residents; the sole verified email bounced back as undeliverable. Link.

• The Energy Department awarded over $19 million to five companies to study nuclear waste recycling, marking the Trump administration's first move on recycling since nuclear executive orders last May. Alpha Nur Inc., Curio Solutions, Flibe Energy Inc., Oklo Inc., and SHINE Technologies will each tackle different challenges, including recovering highly enriched uranium, producing uranium hexafluoride gas, and developing electrochemical processing methods. Link.

• Iowa's Senate Technology Committee advanced SSB 3010, a bill that would make solar geoengineering and cloud seeding Class D felonies punishable by up to five years in prison or fines up to $10,245, with each day counted as a separate offense. Tennessee approved the first such ban in April 2024, followed by Florida and Louisiana in June 2025; 34 states are now considering similar legislation, according to nonprofit SRM360. Link.

• Waymo raised a $16 billion round at a $126 billion post-money valuation, co-led by Dragoneer Investment Group, DST Global, and Sequoia to scale its robotaxi business globally. It also announced plans to expand its autonomous ride-hailing service to Boston and Sacramento; in Boston, state legislation will be required to legalize fully autonomous vehicles before launch. Waymo is currently delivering about 400,000 driverless rides per week. Link. Link.

• Mundi Ventures, based out of Spain, completed a €750 million (~$890 million) first close for its fifth fund, Kembara Fund I—backed by a €350 million (~$416.5 million) European Investment Fund commitment—to invest in European Series B and C deep tech and climate tech startups. Link.

• Bedrock Robotics, based in San Francisco, raised a $270 million Series B round at a $1.75 billion post-money valuation for its autonomous construction equipment systems. CapitalG and the Valor Atreides AI Fund co-led. Link.

• Lunar Energy, based out of Mountain View, raised more than $230 million, including a $102 million Series D round led by B Capital and Prelude Ventures, plus a previously unannounced $130 million Series C round. The startup develops software that optimizes home batteries and has about 2,000 installations across California so far. Link.

• Newcleo, based out of Paris, raised an $85 million round for its lead-cooled nuclear reactor and recycled-fuel technologies, bringing total funding to over $755 million. Investors included Kairos, Indaco Ventures, Azimut Investments, the CERN pension fund, Walter Tosto, Danieli & C., Cementir Holding, Orion Valves, and NextChem. Link.

• R3 Robotics, based out of Luxembourg, raised a $16.5 million Series A round co-led by HG Ventures and Suma Capital for its robotic systems that automate the disassembly and recycling of lithium-ion batteries and electrified components. Link.

• Supra Elemental Recovery, a newly launched Austin startup, raised a $2 million pre-seed round led by Crucible Capital for recovering high-purity critical minerals such as gallium and scandium from post-industrial material streams. Link.

Ciao,

— Nick