January 05, 2025: Weak Santa Rally, Third Year In A Row

Friday was the last day of the Santa Claus rally — Dow Jones was down 0.4%, S&P lost 0.5%, Nasdaq fell 0.7% during that period this time around. While this could presage larger declines during the year, 2023 and 2024 had weak Santa Claus rallies as well, and despite major indices ending the week down – Friday saw strong rebounds. Nvidia CEO, Jensen Huang’s CES 2025 keynote address could provide readthroughs for investors. Amazon struck a warrant deal with electronics manufacturer Jabil. Amazon has a record of equity-for-spending deals with its suppliers. Shares of Carvana fell 2% after Hindenburg Research, published a short report. Tesla said it sold fewer electric vehicles in 2024 than the prior year for the first time since 2010, as China’s electric-vehicle leader BYD posts record sales in 2024. Microsoft is on track to spend US$80 billion on datacenters for running AI software in the twelve months ending in June. In Canada, two more tech companies were taken out last week. Quisitive will be acquired by H.I.G. Capital. For $0.57/sh in cash, a 57.1% premium to the 20-day VWAP. Tech services firm WWT will acquire Softchoice (SFTC-TSX) in all-cash deal, for $24.50/sh – a premium of ~ 32% on the closing price September 23, 2024, (day prior to commencement of the review process). Sophic Client, Legend Power Systems announced the upsizing of its Non-Brokered Private Placement and closing of first tranche at a price of $0.18/ Unit, distributing 4,233,167 Units for gross proceeds of $761,970. This follows a very bullish article from Bloomberg (https://tinyurl.com/n2f296yc) about the high demand for energy due to AI and how it is negatively impacting power quality across the US – exactly what Legend Power’s SmartGATE can do for governments and commercial real estate owners. Sophic Client, NowVertical further enhanced core leadership alignment through debt-to-equity conversions. An aggregate entitlement of US$815,000, and US$151,200 will be settled via stock at 33c (11% discount to the last closing price), certain additional cash payments will be spread out over time. These agreements, combined with the previously announced LATAM market unit debt-to-equity conversion, deliver total cash outflow savings of approximately US$1.6 million, significantly supporting NowVertical’s organic growth strategy.

Tech services firm WWT acquires Canadian IT provider Softchoice (SFTC-TSX) in all-cash deal.

On Tuesday, World Wide Technology (WWT), a tech services company based in St. Louis, announced it has agreed to acquire Canadian IT provider Softchoice in a deal that values the latter at $1.8 billion (~US$1.25 billion). The deal, which is all-cash, was unanimously approved by Softchoice’s board, but has yet to be voted on by the company’s shareholders. It’s also subject to court approval and customary closing conditions; the firms expect it to be finalized in late Q1 or early Q2 2025. If it isn’t, Softchoice could be on the hook for a $49 million (~US$34 million) termination fee. In 2013, private equity firm Birch Hill acquired Softchoice for $412 million (~US$286 million), per Crunchbase. Close to a decade later, in 2021, the company filed for an initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) that valued it at around $1.15 billion (~US$800 million). Softchoice’s financials have been fairly strong as of late. WWT says its offer represents a total shareholder return of around 62% over Softchoice’s initial public offering price. https://tinyurl.com/fs3brpae

Quisitive (QUIS-TSXV) to be acquired by H.I.G. Capital.

Quisitive Technology Solutions Inc., entered into an arrangement agreement (the “Arrangement Agreement”) pursuant to which an affiliate (the “Purchaser”) of H.I.G. Capital (“H.I.G.”) will acquire all of the issued and outstanding common shares (the “Shares”) of the Company (the “Transaction”). Under the terms of the Arrangement Agreement, shareholders will receive C$0.57 per Share in cash, other than Shares held by certain employees who enter into equity rollover agreements (the “Rollover Shareholders”). The purchase price of the Transaction represents a total equity value of approximately C$169.1 million. The purchase price per Share further represents a 57.1% premium to the 20-day volume-weighted average price per share for the period ending on December 31, 2024, and a 52.0% premium to the closing price on the TSX Venture Exchange on December 31, 2024. https://tinyurl.com/mvna3ujr

Sophic Client Legend Power Systems Inc. (LPS-TSXV, LPSIF-OTC) announces upsizing of Non-Brokered Private Placement and closing of first tranche.

Legend Power Systems Inc. closed the first tranche (the “First Tranche”) of its non-brokered private placement (the “Offering”) of units of the Company (each, a “Unit”) at a price of $0.18 per Unit. Under the First Tranche, the Company distributed 4,233,167 Units for gross proceeds of $761,970. Each Unit consists of one common share in the capital of the Company (each, a “Common Share”) and one Common Share purchase warrant (each, a “Warrant”). Each Warrant issued under the First Tranche entitles the holder to acquire one additional Common Share at an exercise price of $0.30 until December 30, 2026. Legend Power also announces that, as a result of the demand for securities offered pursuant to the Offering announced on December 16, 2024, the Company has upsized the Offering from gross proceeds of up to $1,530,000 to gross proceeds of up to $2,070,000, to be raised from the issuance of up to 11,500,000 Units. https://tinyurl.com/yuhtckta

Sophic Client NowVertical Group (NOW-TSXV) further enhances core leadership alignment through debt-to-equity conversions.

NowVertical Group Inc. entered into a debt settlement agreement with the former owners of Acrotrend Solutions Ltd. (the “Vendors”). The Vendors include Sandeep Mendiratta, NowVertical’s CEO, who is a key part of the Company’s core leadership team, have agreed to settle an aggregate entitlement of US$815,000, from the US$1,055,000 owing to the Vendors as of December 31, 2024, through the issuance of Class A subordinate voting shares of NowVertical (the “Subordinate Voting Shares”). Subject to receipt of TSX Venture Exchange (the “TSXV”) approval, the Company will issue an aggregate of 3,553,646 Subordinate Voting Shares (collectively, the “Settlement Shares”) to the Vendors at a price of C$0.33 per share (the “Settlement Price”), representing an approximate 11% discount to the last closing price of the Subordinate Shares on the TSXV. Additionally, the Vendors have agreed to defer the remaining US$240,000 of cash payments that became owing to the Vendors on January 1, 2025, spreading it into 12 equal monthly installments of US$20,000 throughout 2025. Following the issuance of the Settlement Shares, the only remaining obligations to the Vendors will be the payment of the US$240,000. In a separate agreement, the Company and Andre Garber, NowVertical’s Chief Development Officer, have entered into a debt settlement agreement to settle an outstanding debt of US$151,200 related to a 2021 cash bonus. Subject to receipt of TSXV approval, the cash bonus will be settled through the issuance of 659,278 Subordinate Voting Shares at the Settlement Price. These agreements, combined with the previously announced LATAM market unit debt-to-equity conversion, deliver total cash outflow savings of approximately US$1.6 million, significantly supporting NowVertical’s organic growth strategy. https://tinyurl.com/mpe9dfc

Investors hope for US stock market trifecta in 2025 after back-to-back boom years.

Investors are expecting more gains for the U.S. stock market in 2025 after two straight standout years, fueled by a solid economy supporting corporate profits, moderating interest rates and pro-growth policies from incoming president Donald Trump. Investors are more confident about the economy than this time a year ago, with consumers and businesses having absorbed higher interest rates and the Federal Reserve now lowering them – albeit by not as much as hoped. Corporate profits are also expected to be strong, with S&P 500 earnings projected to rise 14% in 2025, according to LSEG IBES. On the other side of the ledger, inflation remains stubborn, and Wall Street is wary of a rebound that could lead the Fed to change course on its easing cycle. Indeed, stocks pulled back sharply after the central bank projected fewer rate cuts next year as it braced for firmer inflation. Such prospects could become more likely if Trump implements tariffs on U.S. imports that lead to higher consumer prices. Stock valuations, meanwhile, are around their steepest levels in more than three years, leaving greater potential for turbulence. “We’ve been on quite the tear coming off the lows back at the end of 2022. The current bull market for the S&P 500 that began in October 2022 is less than half as long as the average length of the 10 prior ones, according to Keith Lerner, co-chief investment officer at Truist Advisory Services. The S&P 500’s roughly 64% gain during this latest run trails the 108% median gain and 184% average rise of the prior bull markets, according to Lerner. https://archive.ph/nMGuC

Number of US venture capital firms falls as cash flows to tech’s top investors.

The number of active venture capital investors has dropped more than a quarter from a peak in 2021, as risk-averse financial institutions focus their money on the biggest firms in Silicon Valley. The tally of VCs investing in US-headquartered companies dropped to 6,175 in 2024 — meaning more than 2,000 have fallen dormant since a peak of 8,315 in 2021, according to data provider PitchBook. The trend has concentrated power among a small group of mega-firms and has left smaller VCs in a fight for survival. It has also skewed the dynamics of the US venture market, enabling start-ups such as SpaceX, OpenAI, Databricks and Stripe to stay private for far longer, while thinning out funding options for smaller companies. More than half of the US$71 billion raised by US VCs in 2024 was pulled in by just nine firms, according to PitchBook. General Catalyst, Andreessen Horowitz, Iconiq Growth and Thrive Capital raised more than US$25 billion in 2024. https://tinyurl.com/yc587yye

KoBold used AI to find copper — now investors are piling in to the tune of US$537 million.

KoBold Metals closed a US$537 million Series C round on Wednesday to help build a multi-billion-dollar mine to exploit a copper deposit it found using AI. The new funding round, which was led by Durable Capital Partners and T. Rowe Price, will be used to expand the company’s exploration efforts on five continents and develop a massive copper deposit in Zambia. The funding round pushed KoBold’s valuation to US$2.96 billion, according to the Financial Times. KoBold, which was founded in 2018, uses AI to comb through massive geological datasets in an attempt to improve the success rate. Andreessen Horowitz, Bond, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Earthshot VC, Equinor, July Fund, Mitsubishi, Standard Investments, StepStone, and WCM Investment Management also participated in the round. Previous investors include Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Jack Ma. https://tinyurl.com/4h63pece

Fidelity lifts valuation of Elon Musk’s X and xAI even higher.

Fidelity has lifted its valuation of two Elon Musk-controlled tech companies even higher, according to recent filings. This was the third month in a row that the mutual-fund giant raised the value of its stakes in xAI and the social-media platform X, the filings show. The Fidelity Blue Chip Growth Fund valued its xAI shares at US$79,857,865 at the end of November, a monthly report posted at the end of December said. That’s a 6.4% increase from October, when the fund valued its stake in xAI at US$75,062,706, and an increase from September, when the value was US$44,152,362. https://tinyurl.com/bp5ap4u8

Getty Images explores merger with rival Shutterstock.

Getty Images Holdings Inc. is exploring a merger with rival Shutterstock Inc., according to people familiar with the matter. Getty Images rose as much as 32%. Getty has been weighing how to structure a combination that would bring together two of the biggest providers of licensed visual-content in the US, said the people, who asked to not be identified because the information isn’t public. Getty Images was up 26% to $2.66 at 2:06 p.m. in New York trading Friday, giving the company a market value of about US$1.1 billion. Shutterstock rose 12% to US$32.67, for a market value of about US$1.1 billion. Before Friday’s gains, Getty had fallen 56% in the past year while Shutterstock had slid 37%, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A merger would likely draw significant antitrust scrutiny while also underscoring optimism among companies for a more permissive regulatory environment for dealmaking under the incoming Trump Administration. The merger deliberations by Getty Images come as demand for pictures, videos and other media soars, with consumers increasingly spending more of their time online. Artificial intelligence is also upending the content-creation business, while cell phone cameras have reduced the value of stock photography. Getty Images went public via a blank-check vehicle backed by CC Capital and Neuberger Berman in 2021, fetching a valuation of US$4.8 billion at the time. Shutterstock, which went public in 2012, runs a search-able platform that lets contributors upload their content in exchange for royalty payments based on download activity, according to its most recent annual report. https://archive.ph/OJw7W

Amazon strikes warrant deal with electronics manufacturer Jabil.

Electronics manufacturer Jabil said Friday that it had granted Amazon warrants to purchase more than 1 million of its shares for about $160 million, with the warrants vesting based on Amazon’s spending on the company’s products. Jabil, which operates more than 100 factories around the world that make everything from cellphones to healthcare equipment, has previously disclosed that Apple and Amazon have been among its largest customers. Amazon has a record of equity-for-spending deals with its suppliers and has stakes in companies like electric vehicle maker Rivian, food distributor Spartan Nash and air cargo operator Sun Country Airlines. The Jabil warrants give Amazon the right to purchase the shares for US$137.77, according to a securities filing. The Jabil filing redacted the exact amount Amazon would need to spend for all of the warrants to vest. Jabil shares surged more than 5% to $150.50 on Friday afternoon. The warrants represent about 1% of Jabil’s average shares outstanding in the quarter ended Nov. 30. https://tinyurl.com/39t4392a

Carvana shares drop 2% after Hindenburg allegations.

Shares of Carvana fell 2% after a short-selling research firm, Hindenburg Research, published a report alleging that the publicly traded online car dealer has weak underwriting standards and an increasingly risky portfolio of subprime loans. The report focused on the role played by the father-and-son duo behind the company, Ernest Garcia III, the 42-year-old CEO of Carvana, and Ernest II, 67, who is a major shareholder. Hindenburg titled its report, “Carvana: A Father-Son Accounting Grift for the Ages.” But the Garcias denied the allegations. Hindenburg has shorted Carvana shares—giving it an economic incentive to drive down the price. In the past, Hindenburg has targeted such firms as Block and Roblox. https://tinyurl.com/edx7e2ym

Tesla reports annual sales decline.

Tesla said it sold fewer electric vehicles in 2024 than the prior year for the first time since 2010, despite incentives including lower prices, zero-interest loans and free charging. Investors drove Tesla shares down 6% in mid-day trading. CEO Elon Musk had predicted that Tesla would beat its 2023 sales figure. But in a report Thursday, Tesla said it sold 495,000 EVs in the fourth quarter and 1.79 million for the year. It needed to sell roughly 515,000 cars in the fourth quarter to beat its 2023 record of 1,808,000 EV sales. Annual sales fell only by about 1%, but the decline was significant for a number of reasons: For more than a decade, Tesla sales have typically grown annually by double-digit percentages, sometimes by more than 50%. In addition, while Tesla struggled all year to sell its vehicles, as The Information reported, its main global rival, China’s Byd, had a record 2024: Byd reported that it delivered around 595,000 pure EVs in the fourth quarter, 25% more than Tesla did, and 4.3 million vehicles in all when you include plug-in hybrids. Tesla does not sell plug-in hybrids. It was the first quarter in which Byd’s sales of pure EVs surpassed Tesla’s. Byd sold 1.76 million pure EVs for the year, slightly fewer than Tesla’s annual sales. https://tinyurl.com/ye822n4f

China’s electric-vehicle leader BYD posts record sales in 2024.

China’s best-selling car manufacturer BYD sold a record number of electric vehicles and hybrids globally last year, even as fierce competition took hold in its home market. Tesla’s biggest rival sold 4.3 million EVs and hybrids in 2024, far more than the target of 3.6 million it set earlier, according to the company. “China’s champion, the world’s champion,” the company said in a social media post late on Wednesday. BYD sold 1.76 million pure EVs last year, but not enough to oust Tesla as the world’s biggest-selling EV maker. The US company, run by Elon Musk, said on Thursday that it delivered 1.79 million cars last year. Li Auto, China’s first profitable EV start-up, Stellantis-backed Leapmotor and smartphone maker Xiaomi also surpassed their targets, selling 500,000, 290,000 and 135,000 EVs respectively during 2024. China is expected to sell more EVs, including pure battery-powered cars and plug-in hybrids, than vehicles with internal combustion engines for the first time in 2025, as a result of hundreds of billions of dollars in government subsidies over the past decade. https://archive.ph/bTAbT

Microsoft to spend US$80 billion on datacenters this year.

Microsoft is on track to spend US$80 billion on datacenters that are tailor-made for running AI software in the twelve months ending in June, president Brad Smith said in a blog post on Friday. More than half of that spending will take place in the U.S., Smith said. The investment is a sharp increase from the US$53 billion Microsoft spent on capital expenses in the same period a year prior. The increase in datacenter spending reflects Microsoft’s bet that demand for training and running AI software will continue to grow in the year ahead. Microsoft has repeatedly told investors in recent years that demand for server rentals among AI developer customers of its Azure cloud service have outpaced supply. In the blog post, Smith called on the incoming Trump administration to commit more money to funding AI research and to help speed up the development of datacenters. Microsoft is optimistic that Trump and his appointees will cut back on permitting requirements for datacenters and will loosen restrictions on energy production, making it cheaper and easier to connect power-hungry datacenters to the electrical grid, The Information previously reported. https://tinyurl.com/59hyt659

Nvidia’s next move: Powering humanoid robots.

The chipmaking giant Nvidia is leaning more heavily into robotics in 2025. More specifically, in the first half of the new year, confirms the Financial Times, Nvidia is launching a new generation of compact computers for humanoid robots called Jetson Thor. The move, which was expected, is part of an evolving, years-long strategy. Nvidia doesn’t plan to compete directly with manufacturers like Tesla, but rather provide the “hundreds of thousands” of robot makers in the world with a kind of underlying OEM, as its vice president of robotics, Deepu Talla, told reporters last month in Tokyo. As for why now, Talla tells the FT that the shift owes to two technological breakthroughs: the explosion of generative AI models, and the ability to train robots on them using simulated environments. What Nvidia isn’t saying but is also plainly the case: Its push into AI-powered robots comes as major customers like Amazon and Google work to lessen their dependence on the outfit’s AI chips by developing their own. https://tinyurl.com/w2ys3bcx

Alibaba cuts pricing for top vision language model by 85%.

Alibaba is cutting pricing for its most advanced cloud-based visual large language model, called Qwen-vl-max, by up to 85%, the South China Morning Post reported. This is Alibaba’s second LLM price cut this year and highlights the growing competition between it and rivals like ByteDance, Baidu, and Tencent for cloud AI spending. Alibaba, the largest cloud provider in China’s domestic market, is hoping that AI can revitalize this part of its business, where growth has slowed significantly in recent years. Last month, Alibaba launched an open-source reasoning model that generated positive reactions on social media and demonstrated its ability to compete in an emerging area of generative AI. The AI competition in China is gaining steam despite U.S. authorities’ efforts to block Chinese firms from using Nvidia’s latest graphics processing units. ByteDance, which owns TikTok, plans to spend $7 billion to access Nvidia Hopper AI chips and its forthcoming Blackwell chips outside China in 2025, as we reported earlier this week. https://tinyurl.com/2hnbkyy9

Starlink users cross 4.6 million globally in 7 months.

SpaceX, the aerospace company led by Elon Musk, has achieved a significant milestone with its Starlink satellite internet service. The platform now serves over 4.6 million users across 118 countries and territories, marking a rapid growth of 1.6 million new users in just seven months. In May 2024, SpaceX reported 3 million Starlink users. The company has since focused on expanding its services, activating connectivity in 27 new markets. To support this growth, SpaceX completed 89 launches throughout the year, dedicated to building and enhancing its Starlink satellite constellation. SpaceX is now gearing up to launch its third-generation (V3) Starlink satellites. These advanced satellites will be deployed using the company’s upcoming Starship launch vehicle. Each launch is expected to add 60 terabits per second (Tbps) of capacity to the Starlink network, significantly outpacing the 3 Tbps capacity of current Falcon 9 launches. While Starship is still in development and undergoing tests, it is expected to revolutionize satellite deployment. The larger payload capacity of Starship will enable SpaceX to deploy more advanced satellites, providing a 10x increase in bandwidth and reduced latency for Starlink users. https://tinyurl.com/rv3fjjax

Netflix’s NFL games drew millions of additional viewers overseas.

Netflix said nearly 5 million more viewers tuned in from overseas to watch its live telecasts of two Christmas Day NFL games. Overall, Netflix said the first game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Pittsburgh Steelers averaged 30 million viewers per minute worldwide, and the second game between the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans attracted 31.3 million viewers per minute. In the U.S., Netflix said both games averaged 26.5 million viewers, citing measurement data tallied by Nielsen. These figures are in line with what NFL games typically get on traditional broadcast TV during the regular season, though Netflix’s U.S. viewership was a few million below what Paramount’s CBS and Nickelodeon drew for a Christmas Day game between the Chiefs and the Las Vegas Raiders in 2023. Still, Netflix is able to champion its ability to successfully live stream two NFL games attracting tens of millions of viewers as the streaming giant increasingly competes for live sports rights. The NFL, meanwhile, is focused on growing the popularity of its league overseas, with the NFL deal a major step forward on that path. Netflix said either or both games were in its daily top 10 lists in numerous countries including Germany, the U.K., Australia and Austria. https://tinyurl.com/5n7bjcs7

US Treasury says China accessed government documents in ‘major’ cyberattack.

The U.S. Treasury told lawmakers in a letter Monday that it was hit by a cyberattack earlier in December, which the department has attributed to Chinese government hackers. https://tinyurl.com/5sh2nwke

U.S. expands lawsuit against fintech Dave, adding CEO.

The Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission have expanded a lawsuit alleging banking fintech Dave misled customers and charged hidden fees, adding the company’s CEO Jason Wilk as a defendant. The lawsuit, filed on Monday, said Dave misled customers by charging hidden fees and making it difficult for users to cancel monthly “tips” they pay to access cash advances. The lawsuit alleged Dave customers rarely were offered cash advances as high as the $500 advertised by the company, and often were not offered advances at all. The lawsuit also alleged Dave falsely told customers part of their tip would pay for meals for children in need but in reality the company kept the majority of fees for itself and donated only a nominal sum to charity. The lawsuit amends and replaces an earlier complaint the FTC launched, which did not seek civil penalties or allege wrongdoing by CEO Wilk. https://tinyurl.com/4fctk7zn

Volkswagen unit leaks cloud data from 800,000 EV owners.

Cariad, a Volkswagen subsidiary that develops automotive software, left the personal and geolocation data of some 800,000 electric vehicle owners open to public view for several months due to a misconfiguration in Amazon Web Services’ cloud storage, the German magazine Der Spiegel reported. These sorts of data leaks—which have also happened at companies like Verizon and Time Warner Cable, as well as the Pentagon—can create the impression that cloud storage isn’t secure, when in fact these incidents almost always stem from human error. At AWS and elsewhere, customers bear responsibility for securing the data they store in the cloud. While AWS and other cloud providers have added safeguards to avoid these kinds of misconfigurations, they may have to do more to protect customers from their own missteps. https://tinyurl.com/35hm6638

AI Needs so much power, it’s making yours worse.

AI data centers are multiplying across the US and sucking up huge amounts of power. New evidence shows they may also be distorting the normal flow of electricity for millions of Americans. The problem is threatening billions in damage to home appliances and aging power equipment, especially in areas like Chicago and “data center alley” in Northern Virginia, where distorted power readings are above recommended levels. An exclusive Bloomberg analysis shows that more than three-quarters of highly-distorted power readings across the country are within 50 miles of significant data center activity. While many facilities are popping up near major US cities and adding stress to already fragile grids, this trend holds true in rural areas as well. Every day, Americans reach into their refrigerators or turn on their dishwashers without much thought given to the electricity flowing through their homes. But a hidden problem now threatens these seemingly mundane tasks: distorted power supplies. The term for the issue is “bad harmonics.” It may seem a bit esoteric, but you can think of it like the static that can be heard when a speaker’s volume is jacked up higher than it can handle. Electricity travels across high-voltage lines in waves, and when those wave patterns deviate from what’s considered ideal, it distorts the power that flows into homes. Bad harmonics can force home electronics to run hot, or even cause the motors in refrigerators and air conditioners to rattle. It’s an issue that can add up to billions of dollars in total damage. More importantly, bad harmonics are symptomatic of much deeper problems that are engulfing the US grid. Distorted waves are just one measure of broader power quality. When homes experience good, or stable, power quality, it means that the flow of electricity for lights and appliances is being delivered at an even and predictable pace. The worse power quality gets, the more the risk increases. Sudden surges or sags in electrical supplies can lead to sparks and even home fires. Left unaddressed, one problem can morph into another. That means the bad harmonics of today can be a sign of potential disaster down the road. Whisker Labs tracks power quality in real-time using roughly 1 million residential sensors, which are spread so widely across the country that nearly 90% of US homes are within half a mile of one. A Bloomberg analysis of exclusive sensor data coupled with data from DC Byte, a market intelligence firm, showed a strong link between proximity to data centers and worsening harmonics. Experts have been warning for some time now about the impact data centers will have on power grids across the globe. The AI boom has only underscored the issue: The digital economy is sucking up so much power that demand is now straining available supplies of electricity in many parts of the world, leading to concerns over price increases and even widespread outages. And that’s only projected to worsen as more data centers are built. The new harmonics data shows how these problems are already starting to play out in real time across the US. It’s an issue that goes beyond just whether or not there’s enough power to flip the lights on. Distortions mean that even as electricity is flowing to homes, the quality can be eroded enough to destroy appliances and increase vulnerability to electrical fires if there’s a voltage surge. Poorer power quality overall can also eventually lead to lights flickering along with brownouts and blackouts. The grid has never faced the kinds of strain that comes with data centers. https://tinyurl.com/n2f296yc