October 15, 2026
Bonus Content: CVX Is Selling Electrons, Not Just Oil
Dear Reader,
Former Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Opdyke has spent decades tracking global wealth shifts.
And right now, he believes most people are looking in the wrong place when it comes to AI.
They think the opportunity is in AI stocks.
He strongly disagrees.
In fact, Jeff says the biggest retirement opportunity tied to AI may have nothing to do with tech stocks at all.
Instead, he believes it’s happening somewhere much less obvious…
In a part of the system that becomes more valuable the bigger AI gets.
That may sound surprising.
But it’s the same kind of thinking Jeff used years ago when he identified America’s natural gas boom long before it became obvious – including pointing readers toward Cheniere Energy when it was trading around $5 a share in 2011.
Today, it trades above $250.
Now he believes another major shift is forming.
And this time, he says everyday Americans may be able to position themselves starting with less than $150.
He calls it The Surprising AI Retirement Strategy.
You can see his full presentation here.
It’s one of the more interesting retirement ideas we’ve seen in a long time.
Sincerely,
Ben Murnane
Producer, The Surprising AI Retirement Strategy
CVX Is Selling Electrons, Not Just Oil
Chevron’s pivot into direct power provision for tech infrastructure is no longer a sideline experiment. In June 2026, Chevron’s wholly owned subsidiary Energy Forge One signed an agreement with Microsoft to develop a co-located power facility in West Texas that will provide dedicated electricity to a Microsoft-operated data center under a 20-year power purchase agreement. Project Kilby is expected to deliver approximately 2.67 gigawatts of capacity, built through a phased, modular approach that enables incremental expansion over time. That single deal is bigger than most utility-scale wind farms. It is also predominantly gas-fired, not geothermal. The distinction matters for investors trying to value what Chevron is actually building.
The Bull Case: Subsurface Expertise as a Structural Moat
Chevron has said it is in discussions on additional data center power deals across the U.S. The logic is that the oil major is not just selling fuel. It is selling project execution at a scale most utilities cannot match. CEO Mike Wirth has outlined how Chevron is focusing on energy technologies that match its long-standing strengths in subsurface engineering, drilling, and project execution. The company is prioritizing technologies that draw directly on its existing capabilities, and geothermal, with its dependence on deep-well drilling and reservoir understanding, aligns well with Chevron’s traditional upstream skillset.
That argument extends beyond marketing. As of the end of 2024, about 1,400 GW of power generation and about 890 GW of storage projects were stuck in multi-year U.S. grid interconnection queues. Separately, analysts at Sightline Climate have estimated that roughly 30% to 50% of AI data centers planned for deployment in the U.S. in 2026 could be delayed or canceled due to constraints including access to power. Chevron’s answer is a behind-the-meter model. Chevron has described the power at Project Kilby as dedicated to the data center rather than going through the public grid. For hyperscalers racing to add capacity, that is not a minor feature. It is the entire product.
The project is targeting mid-teen returns, and Chevron has told investors Kilby is expected to generate long-duration contracted cash flows that are independent of commodity price cycles. For a stock that has climbed roughly 47% year-to-date, a steady 20-year contracted income stream is the kind of re-rating argument that earns a higher multiple.
The Bear Case: Geothermal Ambition Versus Gas Reality
The problem with framing Chevron as a geothermal-powered data center play is that, right now, it is not one. Project Kilby runs on Permian Basin gas turbines supplied by GE Vernova, with additional turbines from Caterpillar’s Solar Turbines business, not on deep-earth heat. The geothermal thread is real but early. Chevron has a DOE-funded enhanced geothermal systems pilot in Sonoma County, California, and Chevron Technology Ventures has backed Foro Energy, a company working on high-power laser drilling tools. One common policy benchmark for EGS is the Department of Energy’s goal to cut the cost of EGS electricity to $45 per MWh by 2035, which reinforces that EGS is still on a technology maturation curve.
That subsidy dependence is a structural vulnerability. Any rollback in clean energy incentives pushes the economics back toward unworkable. Meanwhile, the emissions profile for a multi-gigawatt gas project is not trivial. Permitting documents filed with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for the Kilby Power Plant include greenhouse-gas permitting as part of the air-permit process, keeping Chevron squarely in regulatory crosshairs even as it courts tech clients with sustainability commitments. Alphabet and Amazon are already signing geothermal-related arrangements through utility programs in Nevada. If pure-play geothermal costs fall faster than expected, Chevron’s gas-fired campus model faces competitive pressure from both ends.
Where the Evidence Leads
The bull case rests on execution, and Chevron has made the right moves to be taken seriously. A 20-year, 2.67 GW power agreement with one of the world’s largest cloud operators is not a pilot program. Reuters reported the project would be big enough to power a city the size of San Francisco. Chevron has said a final investment decision is expected by the end of 2026, and earnings are due October 30, 2026, when management will face direct questions on capital allocation and contract pipeline.
The more honest framing is this: Chevron is an oil major that has found a way to sell dispatchable power at contracted rates with no commodity price exposure. The geothermal angle adds optionality, not near-term cash flow. Investors who buy the geothermal story today are buying a thesis that is years from proof. Investors who buy the gas-to-data-center story are buying something that has a signed contract, a first-power target of 2028, and mid-teen return targets from a company that has delivered on complex energy infrastructure before.
The competitive pressure on Chevron’s gas model is already visible elsewhere in the power market. Tech giants signing 20-year nuclear contracts directly with operators shows how quickly hyperscalers are locking in carbon-free baseload alternatives to gas.
That is the more defensible position. Watch whether Chevron announces a second co-location deal before year-end. A second signed PPA would confirm this as a repeatable business rather than a one-off. Until then, the geothermal premium in the share price is largely borrowed conviction.
