METHODOLOGY

How we count a gigawatt.

A reserve figure is only worth anything if it is honest about what counts. Here is exactly what we count, what we don't, and where the numbers come from.

What we measure

One headline number per company: gigawatts of power controlled — the asset every contest in this sector reduces to. Against it, one price: market capitalization per gigawatt — Val/GW, our price-to-reserves.

Val/GW does not tell you who has the best software or the cleanest balance sheet. It tells you who the market thinks owns the future of the grid, and what it is paying for the privilege. Cheap reserves and expensive reserves both say something — the ledger is built to let you see which is which.

The three tiers

We split every megawatt into three tiers and never blur them. The leaderboard ranks on the all-in total; the bar shows the mix.

OPERATIONAL

Energized and operating today, under the company's own control. Power that is earning.

SECURED

Grid-secured — an executed interconnection agreement — or under construction, or covered by a signed customer offtake. Owned, not yet drawing load.

ANNOUNCED

Committed to a specific site — secured land or an executed exclusivity — with stated intent to build. A pipeline project, not yet under construction.

total_gw = operational + secured + announced

A gigawatt announced is not a gigawatt delivered. The distance between a press release and an energized substation is where most of the risk in this trade lives — so we show operational reserves and total reserves side by side, on purpose, and never collapse the three into one inflated headline.

What we exclude

Three things are deliberately kept out of the headline number. They are the difference between a reserve figure and a press-release figure.

Under evaluation

Land or power under diligence, in a load study, or being explored — with no committed site and no grid agreement. This is optionality, not a reserve. We track it as a separate memo figure and exclude it from the rank.

Leased space

Data-center capacity rented from a landlord. Those megawatts are the landlord's power position, not the tenant's — counting them on both books would double the grid. We count only power a company owns or self-controls.

Double-counting

Where a company reports nested figures — secured that already contains connected that already contains operating — we de-nest them so the three tiers are disjoint and never sum a megawatt twice.

Excluded figures are shown on each profile, labeled — so the discipline is visible, not hidden.

How companies are classified

Two tags describe each company — separate from the GW count. Power sourcing is the one that matters most to this thesis: how a company actually gets firm power.

GRID

Power from a utility interconnection. Cheaper, cleaner story, but at the mercy of the queue.

BEHIND-THE-METER

On-site or co-located generation (gas, wind, solar, nuclear). The most-owned form of power — no interconnection queue, but capital-heavy.

HYBRID

Both grid and on-site generation.

LEASED

Doesn't own generation — rents powered capacity from a landlord. Asset-light; on our basis this power counts on the landlord's books, not theirs.

Sector is a lighter business-model label — where a company sits between owning power and selling compute: Power-First Operator and Vertically Integrated own and run their own power; a Data Center Landlord leases capacity to others; a GPU Cloud / AI Cloud sells compute and typically leases its power. The Approach gauge on each profile plots the same Power↔Compute spectrum precisely.

How we source it

Primary and reputable sources only — SEC filings (10-K / 10-Q / 8-K for domestic issuers; 20-F / 6-K for foreign private issuers), company IR pages and investor decks, monthly operational updates, and named-outlet reporting.

Every figure carries an "as of" date and a source. Where a number cannot be backed by a citable source, we set it to zero and leave it flagged rather than invent support for it. Market price and capitalization refresh from live quotes; power-position changes pass through a human review gate before they publish.

Confidence

Each company carries a confidence level reflecting how cleanly its power position could be sourced and verified:

GOLD

Figures the founder knows cold and has verified against primary filings, line by line.

HIGH

Every figure tied to a primary source; tier classification cross-checked.

MEDIUM

Sourced, but with material judgment calls or gaps flagged on the profile.

LOW

Auto-researched lead, not yet verified — treat as a starting point, not gospel.

What this is not

This is not investment advice, and it is not a stock tip. It is reserve accounting for the power behind AI — analysis, framed as analysis, with the uncertainty stated plainly. Figures are illustrative and may be wrong; verify against primary sources before relying on them.