Anti-AI politicians are getting hilariously rich with AI stocks. Plus, Anthropic's $35B deal

In the latest instance of “do as I say, not as I do,” some of Capitol Hill’s most vociferous data center opponents are, in fact, getting rich in private on the very technology they stand against in the public square.

Pirate Wires journalist Jonas Du joined us on the show today to discuss his latest exposé on the topic. Du profiled 10 congressional representatives who have either voiced dissent against data centers or sponsored bills that would outright hamper their development, but who also hold significant exposure to AI equities, either directly or through a spouse.

“Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Congress are busying themselves with various proposals to slow down [data center] development and impose regulations that would make it very difficult to build data centers,” Du said on the latest Blockspace Live.

“So I thought…I bet if you look into their public financial disclosures, they're personally trying to capitalize off of the data center boom. And lo and behold, I dug into some of these disclosures and that's exactly what I found.”

Du dug up exposure for the 10 politicians and their spouses/immediate dependents that totals anywhere from $12.36 million to $35 million. Three of these — Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), and Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) — signed the AI Data Center Moratorium Act.

In a stunning exchange, Cohen called Du to tell him that he had “no idea IBM,” which is his sole AI-exposed holding, “had anything to do with the AI sector.”

“When I bought IBM, they produced computers. I didn’t know they were in this business, and I don’t care if they are or they’re not. I’m retiring from Congress. So take the whole thing and sh—…adios,” he told Du over the phone, ostensibly cutting himself off before saying “shove it up your a**” — or at least, that was Du’s interpretation.

As a native Tennessean, I applaud him for stopping just shy of verbally abusing the press. But I find his ignorance of this industry’s inner workings, if not unsurprising, stupendous for an authority who wants to cow private-sector development to the whims of career parasites politicians who have no idea how any of this works.

Respectfully, Mr. Cohen, what do you think lives in these data centers and powers AI, if not computers? Tiny techno gnomes? Silicon-festooned Oompa Loompas?

(I know, I know, he’s talking about personal computers when he says IBM “produces computers,” but the former titan of American tech also builds HPC units; so the point is still altogether embarrassing, not the least of which because he has no idea that his policy choices would impact one of the oldest computing companies in America, because he has no idea how that company has evolved with the arcs of tech and time).

The most nauseating hypocrite of the bunch, however, is Ro Khanna of wealth-tax fame, who has also proposed the so-called Data Center Bill of Rights. He is the most exposed out of the 10, with anywhere from $6.5 million to $16.5 million across six trust accounts for his wife and children.

A champion for the working man, some say. Or, as my co-host Charlie Spears put it, a man who is “short data centers with his mouth, long data centers with his wife's brokerage account.”

-CMH

Today, we open with Anthropic’s $35B deal with Lambda for AI cloud compute at Hut 8’s Beacon Point data center, and then we touch on ERCOT missing yesterday’s deadline for a decision on conditional base load classifications in Batch Zero. For interviews, Neddham analyst John Todaro joins us to discuss AI stocks, and Pirate Wires journalist Jonas Du hops on to discuss his latest feature exposing that the portfolios of the most vociferous anti-data center politicians tell a much different story about how they truly feel about the AI boom.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Anthropic signed an agreement with Nvidia-backed Lambda valued at $35 billion for cloud computing. The arrangement is intended to bring Nvidia capacity online for Anthropic’s Claude models.

The project involves Hut 8’s (NASDAQ: HUT) Beacon Point data center campus in Nueces County, Texas. Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) would hold the facility lease, while Lambda would provide compute capacity to Anthropic, the Journal reported.

The reports did not disclose the agreement’s term, GPU count, payment schedule or computing capacity.. Read more.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas delayed its planned issuance of Batch Zero conditional classifications on Monday, citing unfinished data validation and due diligence. ERCOT now expects to release the classifications later this week but did not provide a specific date.

The grid operator had planned to notify the transmission and distribution providers serving each Large Load by August 31. ERCOT said it will publish another market notice after providing those classifications to the relevant service providers. Read more.

Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gina Hinojosa called Monday for an emergency legislative session focused on data-center development. Speaking in Downtown El Paso, she raised concerns involving water and electricity, as well as emissions, noise and public subsidies. Read more.

Hashrate Index launched an AI Hardware Price Index on Monday, placing the median asking price for a new eight-GPU NVIDIA B300 node at $544,280. New H100 nodes carried a $324,438 median ask, while refurbished H100 systems were listed at $246,000.

On a per-GPU basis, the series values B300 hardware at $68,035 and new H100 hardware at $40,555. Refurbished H100 GPUs are priced at $30,750 each within the complete-node configuration. Read more.

The editors of the Wall Street Journal are decidedly pro-data center, according to a new opinion piece posted Tuesday. The Editorial Board says growing opposition to data centers is becoming a campaign issue in Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania, putting candidates under pressure to distance themselves from projects they once supported.

Still, the board is in favor of continued data center development.

“The surge of opposition to data centers reflects misinformation and anxiety about the future more than it does reality,” WSJ’s Editorial Board said. “Both are driven in part by the same people who have sought to block shale fracking, liquefied natural gas exports and other projects that enhance American prosperity and national security.” Read more.

Fervo Energy (NASDAQ: FRVO) signed a non-binding framework with Google Energy covering up to 3 GW of enhanced-geothermal capacity through 2033. The Wall Street Journal detailed the agreement Tuesday.

Fervo must propose at least 1 GW of projects during the framework’s first two years. The arrangement establishes priority geographies and a standard contract structure, but does not require Google to buy the full 3 GW or constitute a project-specific power purchase agreement. Read more.

Cerebras Systems (NASDAQ: CBRS) announced a 165 MW AI data center in Mikkeli, Finland, with Compute Nordic Finland. The initial 50 MW of contracted IT capacity is already under construction. Read more.

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