Energy startups riding the wave of data center power demand are jumping into the public markets.

Why it matters: If they're successful, other next-gen energy players could follow.

Driving the news: Canadian fusion developer General Fusion yesterday agreed to go public via a $1 billion SPAC, and Axios Pro scooped that geothermal developer Fervo Energy has confidentially filed for an IPO.

Reality check: Neither of these companies produces energy at a large commercial scale.

• Fervo has one plant operating in Nevada and plans to turn on its larger facility in Utah this year.
• General Fusion is many years from commercialization, with its first such plant planned for the mid-2030s.
• The companies' public market moves will help fund their capital-intensive infrastructure needs, and could help validate their technology.

The intrigue: Energy and climate venture investors will eagerly follow these offerings, hoping their own portfolio companies could follow these two.

• Many VCs in the climate world have been waiting an eternity to see liquidity.

The big picture: The energy window, of course, is being opened by the improved IPO market, which is expecting debuts from high-profile companies like SpaceX, Anthropic and Databricks, and has seen "boring" companies price successful IPOs.

What we're watching: Wall Street could value the companies building the energy infrastructure for AI more harshly than the AI firms themselves.

• Data center and energy developer Fermi went public at $21 in early October and saw its stock plummet, closing at $9.18 yesterday.
• But broader energy stocks like GE Vernova and energy ETFs have been up in recent months.

Talk to our sales team about Axios Pro Deals for a steady diet of scoops and smart analysis.

DOE said it's scuttling roughly $30 billion in clean energy loans issued in the Biden era and is revising another $53.6 billion — but it's less forthcoming about what's behind the numbers.

Why it matters: The tally captures the scope of DOE's reversal of Biden-era loan office financing — and the new direction of what DOE is now calling the Office of Energy Dominance Financing.

• Info that DOE released yesterday touts backing for nuclear, fossil fuels, critical minerals and more.

Yes, but: Despite the Trump DOE's criticism of Biden-era financing, there's also continuity.

• For instance, Trump's DOE finalized a conditional $1.6B commitment for utility giant AEP's transmission project, and continued financing for Holtec to restart a Michigan reactor, to name two examples.

What we're watching: Specifics. DOE didn't provide a list of loans canceled or revised.

• But some of the reversals have been announced over the last year.
• They include the Grain Belt Express transmission project that would help add renewables, as well as loans for battery development and other tech. The NYT has more.

Leaders in the AI and energy industries gathering in Davos, Switzerland, this week conceded that a bubble might burst in the AI industry — but they also said it may not be so bad or long.

Why it matters: The experts at the World Economic Forum are either inside of or working closely with the very companies fueling the AI boom from all angles, so their perspective is important — even if biased toward overly confident.

What they're saying: NTT Data CEO Abhijit Dubey says his company sees the demand and supply side of the AI industry. It both builds data centers and offers significant technology services to large companies that would use AI.

• Contrasting it with cloud infrastructure, which he said took enterprises 10 years to adopt en masse, Dubey said it should take large companies half that or even less time to adopt AI. So any correction will be short-lived, he predicted.

Varun Sivaram, founder and CEO of Emerald AI, which counts Nvidia as both an investor and customer, said society may have "slightly overbuilt infrastructure, and we'll see a little bit of a lull.

• "But in the long run, I think we're at the very beginning of a mega-movement with the demand for compute."

The intrigue: One leader even speculated that while a bubble could hurt his and other companies, it could be good if it boosts energy.

• "If this bubble results in a reinvigoration of the power sector — which, as you know, is not something that's been attractive for investments —that's actually a net positive for all of us," Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy said during a separate event at Axios House.

Ina Fried contributed

Amy has been busy interviewing newsmakers on stage at Axios House at the World Economic Forum all week in Davos.

Catch up fast on the videos:

• Matt Damon and Gary White on their new water campaign
• Novonesis CEO Ester Baiget on persisting sustainability
• Emerald AI CEO Varun Sivaram on AI and energy
• U.S. ambassador to Greece Kimberly Guilfoyle on trade and energy
• Energy Impact Partners Founder Hans Kobler on cleantech
• Colossal Biosciences co-founder Ben Lamm on conservation and de-extinction
• Conservation Fund's Larry Selzer and The Nature Conservancy's Jennifer Morris on how nature is persevering

The Metals Company, which hopes to exploit deep-sea minerals, is seeking U.S. blessing under a new process that consolidates exploration and recovery permits.

Why it matters: The company's share price bounced this week on the one-two punch of NOAA announcing the process and TMC filing an application.

Driving the news: TMC hopes to explore for polymetallic nodules containing copper, nickel and more in a 65,000 square kilometer area of international waters in the Pacific's Clarion-Clipperton Zone.

What we're watching: Battles to come. Many environmentalists and scientists fear ecological damage from deep-sea extraction.

🌨️ Electric utilities across the U.S. are bracing for heavy demand — with at least one warning of potential for extended power outages — during this weekend's major storm.

• Why it matters: Meteorologists are comparing the storm to Winter Storm Uri, which in February 2021 left millions without power in Texas and was responsible for at least 200 freezing deaths.
• The intrigue: Energy Secretary Chris Wright yesterday asked grid operators to be ready to make available backup generation at data centers and other major facilities. The department said more than 35 gigawatts of unused backup generation remains available. Go deeper.

🌽 House leaders dismayed corn-state lawmakers by removing from the latest appropriations package a measure to permanently allow year-round, nationwide sales of E15 and instead create a new E15 Rural Energy Council.

• Why it matters: The debate over the ethanol-based biofuel threatened to derail the four-bill, $1.2 trillion spending package covering the Pentagon, Transportation-HUD, Labor-HHS and Department of Homeland Security.
• State of play: "As rural America copes with some of the toughest economic conditions in a generation, Congress must meet the moment and finally make E15 year-round a reality," American Coalition for Ethanol (ACE) CEO Brian Jennings said in a statement.

☢️ US to offer states deals to host nuclear waste, source says (Reuters)

Chuck says: This would essentially mark a continuation of the Biden-era approach to seek a willing host to store commercial reactors' waste — an about-face from the longtime failed policy of trying to bury it at Nevada's Yucca Mountain.

🛬Tallying electricity generating potential from retired military aircraft (Energy Information Administration)

Ben says: The power demand surge has lots of people thinking outside the box, and now EIA joins the fray. This primer explores using retired military planes stored at the "Boneyard" at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.

• "We estimate the engines that once powered the retired aircraft could add up to as much as 40,000 MW of electricity generating capacity, or about 10% more than the current generation capacity of Arizona," it finds.

🔥 This Western state allows insurers to skip wildfire coverage (E&E News)

Chuck writes: Nevada could become a national model as states cope with rising insurance costs due partly to accelerating climate change.

🇻🇪 How to improve Venezuela's gas sector (Columbia's Center on Global Energy Policy)

Ben says: The post-Maduro oil landscape gets all the attention, but these scholars explain how to make better use of the country's large gas resources — including large amounts currently flared or vented.

• So... doing it right could increase revenues and ease emissions.

That's 2025 financing for next-generation geothermal, an 80% year-over-year increase (!), per a new IEA primer using Underground Ventures data.