Blackstone and Apollo Throw Billions at AI Chips

A Blackstone press release stated:

Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO), a global technology leader that designs, develops, and supplies semiconductor and infrastructure software solutions, today announced the establishment of the AI XPV Platform with Apollo (NYSE: APO) and Blackstone’s (NYSE: BX) Credit & Insurance Business as initial anchor investors. 

The Platform is designed to enable more than 20 gigawatts in compute capacity using Broadcom’s XPUs and networking solutions customized for leading frontier AI labs, including Anthropic and OpenAI, through 2028. 

The Platform launches today with an initial tranche of $35 billion led by Apollo, in partnership with Blackstone, to facilitate Anthropic’s previously announced capacity expansion of more than 1 gigawatt of compute infrastructure expected to deploy in Fluidstack-based sites starting in mid-2026.

Apollo's press release said global banks would play a role as well.

The funding is for expensive chips that go into AI data centers owned by Fluidstack.

Cipher Mining recently signed a ten year AI hosting agreement with Fluidstack and Google.  In the same press release Cipher announced its Colchis site just outside San Angelo city limits in West Texas.  It is not clear if Colchis is part of that AI hosting arrangement with Fluidstack.  That remains to be seen.

Fluidstack "builds gigawatt scale data centers from the ground up, delivered in months..."

If private equity underwriter (PEU) funding is behind the expensive chips that go into Colchis that's another political push for ERCOT to approve Cipher Mining's AI data center in our area.  A tie to Anthropic and its use of Fluidstack would add an established TechGod dimension.

BlackRock's Larry Fink wants your retirement fund to backstop the data centers people do not want in their backyards.  Blackstone Credit & Insurance Business may do just that with your annuity and Apollo's Athene could do likewise.

“We’re in this unique time where we need multiple trillions of dollars, for AI, power, infrastructure, chips and all of that requires very bespoke, long-duration capital that’s not traditional to the CUSIP market.” John Zito, Co-President, Apollo Asset Management

Long duration capital for short lived assets?  That usually means bagholder.

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.

TechGods 007 Villain Gold-Dingus

TechGods need access to our pension/retirement funds, at least BlackRock CEO Larry Fink recently made that appeal.

Bloomberg ran an opinion piece comparing AI leaders to villains from James Bond movies.  TechGod Peter Thiel and Palantir CEO Alex Karp sound like 007 antagonists in their daily speech.  

With Elon Musk controlling 85% of SPAC-EX after going public, the IPO looks engineered to make Musk the first trillionaire on earth while he retains complete control of the company..  

This is the class that self medicates with ketamine, advocates for government free zones where they make the rules, locates data centers in drought stricken areas and pushes next word predictors as intelligence.  

No real industry would go forward with a product that has significant error rates and is unreliable.  

Robot cars interfere with police and fireman responding to an accident, fire or crime scene.  AI commits what would be a crime if done by a human and nothing happens.  It tells a child to commit suicide.  It facilitates the undressing of underage girls.  

It, like its twisted social media uncle, seeks to addict users.  It furthers irreality, the profane and the grotesque.  It spies as it controls.  

NYPost ran a story on sex workers that can speak tech and the premiums paid by TechGods and their servants for such services.  The story ended with:

“In the future, being able to afford human contact, and to afford settings where there is genuine human contact, will be the ultimate luxury.”

How much will breathable air and drinkable water cost in this "future?"

America has an absurd vision that most do not want, the further obscene enrichment of the TechGod/PEU (private equity underwriter) class at our expense as everything is monetized.  We see which way the resources flow and it is not in our direction.  

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.

Update:  Jesse wrote:

The sickness of the world is being spread like a pandemic of lawlessness by a small but powerful crowd of well-funded sociopaths. Those who are easily seduced by money and power are quickly falling in line with it. 

It will be hard for future generations to understand this, just as we have struggled to understand the middle of the last century and the madness that overtook it.

Madness is as madness does... 

Update 6-9-26:  Trump II, the digital Caligula, encouraged the United Kingdom to not ban social media for children under 16 years of age.

Cipher Digital's Annual Report Covers Colchis LLC

Cipher Digital's 2025 annual report had much to say about their Colchis project, Tom Green County's third possible data center.   It is a joint venture although Cipher Digital never shares their joint venture partner(s) or from whom they purchased their majority interest.

The Tom Green County Appraisal District shows four tracts of land owned by Colchis.  They are next to the land currently leased by SkyBox Data Centers for their project, which is currently being marketed by Emergent Data Centers as SA1.  Both sited in that location to access a large AEP electrical substation.  

Texas electricity regulator ERCOT is running a Batch Zero competition for the state's data center explosion.  That means SkyBox and Cipher are competing for the same monstrous amount of electricity.  

Cipher's Annual Report states: 

Colchis Site 

In November 2025, we purchased a majority interest in a joint venture entity to develop a new HPC site in West Texas capable of providing 1-GW, referred to as Colchis (the “Colchis Site”), under which we expect to hold a majority equity interest subject to final lease and development terms. The Colchis Site includes a fully executed direct interconnection agreement with American Electric Power (“AEP”) for a dual interconnection facility targeting energization in 2028 and options to buy approximately 620 acres of land adjacent to an existing substation.

Redeemable noncontrolling interest 

Redeemable noncontrolling interest represent a 47% noncontrolling ownership in Colchis, variable interest entity (“VIE”), and a consolidated subsidiary of the Company. The entity is deemed a VIE as it does not have sufficient equity-at-risk to finance its activities. As the managing member, the Company has the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact Colchis’s economic performance. Accordingly, the Company was determined to be the primary beneficiary of the VIE and therefore consolidates the entity in its consolidated financial statements. Redeemable noncontrolling interests are presented outside of permanent equity on the consolidated balance sheets as they are redeemable by the holders of the noncontrolling interest and the redemption is outside the control of the Company. The redeemable noncontrolling interests were initially recorded at their issuance date fair value of $30.3 million. The Company subsequently measures the carrying amount of the redeemable noncontrolling interests at the greater of (i) the initial carrying amount, increased or decreased for the noncontrolling interest’s share of net income or loss and its share of other comprehensive income or loss, and dividends or (ii) the redemption value. For interests that are  redeemable in the future, we recognize changes in the redemption value immediately as they occur.

Note 8:  Investment in Joint Ventures

In October 2025, the Company purchased 53% of the equity in Colchis LLC (“Colchis”), a joint venture of a potential 1 GW site in Texas, the “Colchis Site.” The Company is the managing member and consolidates Colchis, and records redeemable noncontrolling interest for the minority interest in the site. The Company deems the noncontrolling interest to be redeemable due to certain clauses in the agreement, which could trigger the redemption of the noncontrolling shares upon events outside of the Company's control. 

There were no changes in ownership of Colchis LLC for the year ended December 31, 2025 after the Company’s original investment.

Note 9:  Intangible Assets

 

The Company recorded amortization expense related to intangible assets of $0.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2025, $0.5 million for the year ended December 31, 2024, and $0.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2023. During the year ended December 31, 2025, the Company acquired strategic contracts for $56.6 million and $12.6 million related to the development of the Colchis and Ulysses sites, respectively, and wrote off $1.2 million of capitalized software related to software projects the Company is no longer pursuing.

There are mixed messages between the Annual Report and other Cipher corporate communications.  A November 3, 2025 press release stated:

In addition, Cipher today announced the formation of a joint entity to develop a 1-gigawatt (“GW”) site, named “Colchis”, in West Texas. Under the terms of the agreement, Cipher is expected to provide the majority of the financing, which would result in approximately 95% equity ownership assuming standard lease and development terms in a future HPC lease. 

The Colchis site includes a fully executed 1-GW Direct Connect Agreement with American Electric Power (“AEP”), under which AEP will construct the necessary dual interconnection facility for a targeted energization in 2028. Construction of the interconnection facility will proceed in parallel with ERCOT's final review and approval. The 620-acres of land under option sit adjacent to the existing substation, and the site has all the necessary characteristics for development of an HPC data center.

One said "purchased" the joint venture while the other said "formed."  One said 53% equity while the other said 95%.

I wonder if AEP's dual interconnection facility garners them an equity stake in Colchis.  It seems strange that AEP would pick one data center over another at this stage.  Shouldn't they work with whichever was approved by ERCOT via Batch Zero?  It feels like a thumb on the scale.  

However it is Texas where there are lots of thumbs and even more scales.  

"DDD" Show in Tom Green County

Data Center #3 has been identified for Tom Green County in West Texas.  

#1 is Skybox Data Centers which hired Emergent Data Centers to develop the project within the City of San Angelo.  

#2 is Beacon Data Centers which has their WestLine project in the Dove Creek area of the county.  

#3 is Cipher Digital using land "a quarter mile east" of the Skybox site, but outside city limits. 

#4 and higher   ?    

As of now TechGods and private equity underwriters (PEU) are driving the development and funding of rapid data center expansion.  Because this is all so enticing, I used the graphic art for the three breasted woman in the Total Recall remake.  

My wise friend noted:

You have to ask yourself, how many times are we going to be taken by the same cartel of scumbags?  They have set up AI as the demand center for the economy funded by circular arrangements with private credit, private equity, Wall Street & venture capitalists feasting on the flow. 

They have also set it up AI as a national security vital interest to combat the world. This means the billionaires class are the recipients of the fiscal push and probably the next bailout (yet again). 

The industry food chain and their CEOs (with their options and everything else) has a secured tokenized seat on the bubble ride and care not what happens at the end of the ride.  What happens to all the towns and counties that staked their future on failed mega data centers?  

My friend expects a cascading series of bankruptcies as the leverage that drove up local asset prices becomes a blender, shredding nearly everything financially on the way down with Uncle Sam saving those who need no assistance but can't stand to see their wealth go down. 

Politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.   Increasingly, more are one.  Cryptbros are currently on the outs. 

Dominari Markets Drone Portfolio

Dominari Holdings press release included a letter to shareholders on their drone related assets.

The rise of the American drone industry is an important factor in our country's new economy, and we are honored to be a part of that rise. 

Drone dominance was described as a "presidential priority" in President Trump's $1.5 trillion defense budget request for fiscal year 2027.

Don Jr. and Eric recently exercised warrants on Dominari shares.  The company discounted the price of those warrants.  

....having an original exercise price of $4.22 per share. 

Exercise Price of such Exercised Warrants shall be reduced to $2.50.

That's a 40% discount for shares that are in a prime positioned to make bank from Trump II's war machine.

Shameless is as shameless does.  The Trumps must have it in their genes.  

Albania? They Went with Jared & His LPs

Euronews reported: 

Protests continued in Albania on Wednesday against a massive coastal development project linked to Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of US President Donald Trump, with demonstrators taking to the streets of Tirana for a third day to voice their opposition to the project. 

The government says the development on the Adriatic coast would be transformational for the former communist nation as it seeks to enter the high-end tourism market and pushes for European Union membership. 

But the venture, spanning a protected island and a nearby stretch of seafront on Albania's southern coast, has drawn opposition from environmental campaigners and critics of long-time Socialist Prime Minister Edi Rama. 

The luxury project has two components: a coastal development in the Narta Lagoon area, which is a wildlife reserve, and a smaller resort on the nearby uninhabited island of Sazan, a communist-era military base.

Ivanka recently spoke about this project being a culmination of her life's work.   Residents of Fisher Island and Indian Creek, the "billionaire bunker" island in Miami's Biscayne Bay need a place to unwind and relax.  Partying in Miami with fellow TechGods, CryptoBros and Private Equity Underwriters (PEU) is hard work.  

Reshaping the globe at the World Economic Forum or Milken Global Conference requires serious down time.  What better than a pristine wildlife area affixed to a former Soviet Union military base.  

The new capitalism is the old communism with a dash of fascism, where money is made from state sponsored industries.  

The planned development of hotels, apartments, villas and a marina is linked to Kushner and Trump's daughter, Ivanka Trump. 

 An investment firm linked to Kushner has been granted special investor status by Albanian authorities.

Affinity Partners is Jared's PEU, mostly investing Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund money.  Those are some large LPs.

Trump Calls for More Jan. 6th Love & PEUty

CNN reported:

President Donald Trump declined to commit to permanently scrapping a $1.776 billion “anti-weaponization” fund on Wednesday, telling CNN’s Kaitlan Collins he still considered the controversial initiative “a beautiful thing”

In solidarity Trump II's meme-coin fell to $1.76 from a high of nearly $76 in January 2025.  

January 6th rioters called the day "their 1776."  This stain on the U.S. Capital should not be rewarded with massive sums of money.  

It's a precipitous fall in the rule of law and blasphemy of words originated in our very founding.  The public can expect lots more of this from Trump II and his savage whims.

It's unclear if the $1.776 billion fund has been stopped.  Trump II, the Great Usurper, routinely ignores the law, tradition, good manners, Congress and the Supremes.  

Affinity Partners may have to manage the money while the fund is in limbo and it may need to use the Trump's USD1 stablecoin as the currency.  It's the Trump version of private equity underwriting (PEU), where affiliates are forced to use each others services, regardless of price or quality.

Why can't anyone put a stop to this?  Because politicians Red & Blue love PEU and their new TechGod brethren.  Increasingly, more are one.

Update 6-5-26:  $TRUMP dropped again, hitting $1.59.