Power Lunch - Power Lunch 9/2/26

Episode Date: September 2, 2026

CNBC’s Kelly Evans and Brian Sullivan take you through the heart of the business day bringing you the latest developments and instant analysis on the stocks and stories driving the day’s agenda. ���Power Lunch” delves into the economy, markets, politics, real estate, media, technology and more. The show sits at the intersection of power and money. “Power Lunch” gives viewers a full plate of CNBC’s award-winning business news coverage, plus a healthy dose of personality from the show’s anchors and the network’s top-notch roster of reporters and digital journalists.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to Power Lunch. I'm Kelly Evans alongside Dominic Chu today with some big news coming out of Venezuela. Energy Secretary Chris Wright in a joint news conference with acting Venezuelan President Delci Rodriguez, signing a new oil agreement that gives the U.S. access to the country's vast oil reserves. Brian Sullivan is there and will join us shortly with more on that and other energy news. Pippa Stevens is also on the ground out in Utah as that state is preparing to connect the nation's first enhanced geothermal project to the using drilling technology pired by oil and gas. And he built a big business around a big idea. Now he's bringing AI into the equation.

Beast Industries, the company behind Mr. Bease, is partnering with Google to use Gemini across its next wave of content and challenges. The CEO, Jeff Hausenbold, will join us later on this hour. Let's begin with those major energy deals in Venezuela. The U.S. is moving to unlock oil flows with Chevron playing a central role. Brian Sullivan is live from Caracas, where he was in the room for this landmark signing just a short time ago. Brian, it's good to see you again, and what can you tell us? Well, you know, when the sun came up today, we thought, well, it's a new day literally, and then is it a new day figuratively?

Is this a new beginning for a country that was once the richest in Latin America was one of the largest oil producers in the world? But since the Chavez and Maduro regimes has fallen on hard times under now interim president, Delci Rodriguez, as they're hoping for a change and maybe that change began today with the signing of a number of different deals. There is the U.S. deal with Venezuela that is hoping to increase production by a couple hundred thousand barrels a day. Then there's a separate deal where Chevron, which has been here since 1923, over 100 years, will expand its own production. So we have both Energy Secretary Christopher Wright and Chevron CEO Michael Worth. They're both on the ground along with a number of other CEOs and vice presidential types here in Caracas, Venezuela, we're actually at the presidential

palace. It's about 50 yards over my left hand shoulder here. You see the city of Caracas right behind us. First off, let's start with the Secretary of Energy because that deal is the one that has gotten some scrutiny. The deal being made with a company called Nebeph, North American Blue Energy Partners run by a figure that has been written about extensively, a gentleman named Alejandro Bettencourt. He was not in the room where the deals were just signed just now, but I am told that he is here in Caracas, maybe near the presidential palace, hoping to speak with him a little later on today. We shall see. Anyway, we sat down this morning with Energy Secretary Christopher Wright and talked about this deal. And more importantly, why would American or international companies feel comfortable doing business in a country which has a history?

And just ask Exxon or ConocoPhillips of expropriating American assets. And he said the goal is to rebuild confidence. Listen. What we're doing is increasing the confidence for private businesses to come do deals in Venezuela, directly with the government of Venezuela and possibly also with the partnership between Nebbbb. This is President Trump's grand plan to replace conflict with commerce. I think we'll be well over a million and a half barrels a day by the first half of next year. And Venezuelan production will be over two million barrels a day by the end of this decade.

And part of that confidence, Kelly and Dom has to do with changing some of the laws. The laws that are in place today regarding taxation and oil profits, they are not the same as they were under previous administrations. They were very different than they were just even six months ago. And that is a critical part of this story. Now, Michael Worth, the CEO of Chevron is also here. Like I said, they're making a separate deal. And they are hoping to increase production by a couple hundred thousand barrels a day. and I asked CEO Worth, I was basically, what is your cost of production?

I didn't fully expect him to tell me, but he did, and the numbers kind of shocked me. Listen. Cost to barrel will be less than $20. Our infrastructure is in good shape. This development will build off of an existing platform of field development, of processing facilities, of pipeline infrastructure, water, power, all the things that we need to grow. We've got that in good shape. Our ability to grow at low cost is quite different than if we were going into a greenfield area that didn't have roads, that didn't have water, that didn't have power.

So we're leveraging that 100-year footprint that we have here to grow on top of that platform. Greenfield, basically term guys for just undeveloped at all. Chevron's saying we're building on what we've already got. So the investment about $7 billion over a number of years, three different projects for that $7 billion, but the hope that they increase production, by a couple hundred thousand barrels a day. Secretary Wright, adding in our interview, and you can go to CBC.com and see the whole thing, that they hope to get maybe double production within a year from where they used to be. And listen, this country here, we drove through it a bit last night. And again, today, it needs some help.

And the idea is that any profits from oil will go to taxation here in Venezuela, which then will flow down hopefully to the people of Carroquay. and Venezuela, the people who need it so much, three and a half million barrels a day to just over one million barrels a day, but they're hoping at the bottom is in. We're going to go to a press conference now between President Delci Rodriguez and Secretary Wright. At the end of the show, I'll be back with my final sort of three big takeaways from our time on the ground here in Caracas. Brian, before you go, I mean, you're right. And that's surprising to me as well, under $20 a barrel being their cost. That's huge potential upside. But there's a lot of skeptics.

still that will be able to ramp production back up from one to anything close to three and a half million barrels a day. What do you think is really feasible here? Yeah, I mean, I think that's one of my big takeaways. I'll give you an early, I guess, tip on that, Kelly, because I think you're exactly right. Listen, this is a country that in 97 did three and a half million barrels a day, you can't really see it from here, but the vestiges of wealth in Caracas are clear. There's a lot of buildings that you can tell were built in the 60s and 70s and. 80s and there was a lot of money. Those buildings are now buildings that have probably not been improved much since the 60s, 70s, and 80. Venezuela, one of the five founding members of OPEC.

Now there's reports that, you know, will its membership in OPEC be cast into doubt. The proof will be, I don't want to say in the pudding, but in the oil, because if it's proof that these new deals and Chevron can actually get oil out of the ground or more oil, to the coast, on a ship, and sell it to the United States, or wherever else it may go. Other companies are likely to follow here, and these deals and these new legal protections, that's key, new legal protections, contract law under the United States. That's part of this deal, that that will be enough to attract maybe even companies like an Exxon, like a Conoco, that used to be here.

Say they got their assets expropriated illegally, still waiting to be paid back. maybe they will come back if they feel safe and if they feel secure. All right. Brian Sullivan, live from Caracas. We'll see you later on, perhaps a new chapter when it comes to what's happening in Venezuela. Let's get out now to Steve Leesman. He's got the headlines from the Fed Bejewbook that just crossed, Steve. Thanks very much, Dom. The Bege Book showing that prices in economic activity increased modestly.

10 of 12 just for growth in the slight to modest range, two were flat. consumer spending grew slightly with an interesting sort of case-shaped comment here in the page book. It said there were heightened sensitivity on the one hand. On the other hand, there were solid high-end purchases. Getting more specifics on that, auto sales were subdued. But airlines reported strong demand despite high airfares. That was kind of interesting.

Manufacturing activity picked up across most districts. Why, there was demand for defense orders as well as data centers. So data centers, NAI is kind of all throughout this, Facebook here. Residential construction declined, but hey, commercial construction on the way up. Why? Well, data centers again. Employment rose very slightly. Labor demand was strongest for high-skilled workers. We've seen that repeatedly.

Now, districts reported positive and negative effects of AI on labor demand. Didn't get into the details there yet, but that's the headline from that from the base book. Wage growth was modest to moderate. That's what the Fed is looking for, whether or not there's wage pressure on inflation from the employment side. Prices increased moderately in most district. input prices were elevated in manufacturing and construction, as well as you saw price increases, mostly for energy transportation and raw materials. Tariff-related impacts were still noted in multiple districts.

So questions whether that remain sort of a one-off thing that's behind us or is there still more to come. Finally, firms were reporting significant health care and insurance cost pressures. And then this issue, a DOM that we've seen quite a bit, this heightened price sensitivity that limits the ability to pass through higher input costs. If they don't pass it through, Dom, as you know, it'll come out of profit margins, but we've seen pretty strong profits. So how much of that is getting passed through the consumer? That's going to show up in the CPI that I guess would be a week for this Friday. There are only so many levers out there to pull on there. Steve Leesman, with the latest headlines from the Fed, Begebook. Thank you very much for that. Now let's

bring in Rick Santelli and get his reaction to those Bejibook headlines and whether or not we are seeing any kind of a reaction and not just the rates picture today, but what the rates outlook is for the rest of the year, Rick? Well, let's look at the charts, six-hour charts, twos, tens, dollar index. And remember, before the beige book was released, we're at 438 and a two-year, certainly looks like we remain there. In the 10-year, we were hovering at 4-79. We remain there. The dollar index was hovering around 99-58. It remained there. There was very little in the market, and with just cause, because the three main words that continue to show up in this Fed-Bage book,

moderately, slightly, and modest. Okay, those aren't going to excite the markets. I was actually a little bit shocked. I thought they would read a little bit more hawkish, maybe kind of laying the fertilizer for a hike. It certainly seems as though the board outside of several are definitely pushing in that direction. But it didn't show up in this.

And as far as what's going on in the rest of the world, we continue to see guns hot, whether you look in the EU and the boons, whether you look at the guilt in the UK, whether you look at the Oat in France, all these long maturities continue to get higher yield closes. The U.S.? Well, the U.S. is going to have to close over 480 to get that in a 10-year. It's still possible, but there's definitely more intensity overseas,

not to diminish the fact that we're seeing this market move higher as well. All these markets, of course, responding to potentially a better economy, potentially more inflation, metastasizing from issues, in the Middle East and, of course, what's going on in oil prices. And when you look at oil today, Dom, it's not having a huge day. And that really goes along with the small net change numbers in most treasury yields today. Rick, it's Kelly. We were talking last hour with Greg Ip and Steve, with this whole idea of can you grow your way out of way. I sort of think that growth is the only option, the only real choice in this situation. But,

I take their point. See if says, look, if you have growth, people want a piece of it. They have more, there's more entitlement. There's more, you know, kind of passing of that around, and it doesn't solve the issue. But I just don't realistically see that you're going to cut any of these entitlements or defense. The interest costs are a nightmare, as we know. I just wonder, am I missing? Is growth the only way out, or is there some other lever to pull here? Well, we can hope that the markets will garner more visuals from the conradicts.

from the senators from the White House down the road because you're exactly right. There's no fiscal dominance that's giving way and going back to a more normalized government, staying within their means on spending. I don't see it. And in terms of growing your way out, I think Brian's got the only story that could potentially do that. Let's face it. The reason oil prices are having such a dramatic effect on global interest rates is obvious because everything in the economy globally,

needs energy in one form or another, right down to PVC, transportation, you name it, it's all there. And I think that what's going on with this president, and you could question a lot of different issues, but the policy of trying to get energy cheapen once and hopefully the Middle East conflict ends, I think that that could be a shot to growth that Greg Gip is missing. Oh, and look at the Europe today, you know, not gas prices at three-year highs as they deal with the energy fallout. Rick, thanks. Appreciate it for today, Rick Santelli. We've got a whole lot more coming this hour.

Secretary Lettnick and Besson weighing in on chips and the AI Davis Center buildout. We'll bring you some analysis there. And is SpaceX being appreciated enough for its AI business? We have an analyst who doesn't think so and hiked his price target on that thesis. But first, Mr. Beast, CEO Jeff Housenbold, he joins us on the landmark AI partnership that, yes, the YouTube megastar Mr. Beast just made will tell you the details next. Welcome back. The creator economy is going AI. Beast Industries striking a multi-year partnership with Google to bring Gemini into the logistics behind some of his biggest, most ambitious content. From extreme climate challenges to wellness integrations, it's a bet on AI as a creative engine and as a business tool.

Jeff Howes-enbold is the president and CEO of Beast Industries. Jeff, it's great to have you here. Welcome. Hey, Kelly, good to see you. So as I understand it, this will mean that people watch it. Mr. Beast's content are going to see him using Gemini? Well, it's a very exciting time for us. We've developed a multi-year partnership with Google, where we're incorporating Google's Gemini into our videos

in very contextually relevant, authentic ways that enhance the experience of our participants and competitions, in helping to navigate some of the treacherous and dangerous stuff that we do in our videos, and bringing to life how consumers can use AI in their daily lives, from helping with homework to figuring out what to give as a gift for Mother's Day to mapping out a vacation. So just like the beginning days of the search industry, consumers are still confused how to use it, and we're going to help bring that to life for the 1.65 billion fans that we have every month.

How much is Google paying for these privileges? Oh, you know, we can't disclose the terms of the deal, but this is super important. This had executive sponsorship all the way up to Sundar, and myself. And so this is a really big deal. And it extends beyond Gemini into Google Health with their Fitbit Air. As you know, everyone's trying to track their health and trying to, you know, be the best versions of themselves. And so we're super excited to incorporate that into our content as well. Jeff, how much AI and agentic AI do you guys use in Beast Industries? And by agentic, I mean, and you may stop me if you can tell me how you're using it. But, you know, using things like

Gemini or Gemini Spark or Claude or. all of these tools to go and automate the way that content gets uploaded across all of the Beast platforms. I have to imagine AI could help make that process much quicker, much more effective and efficient. Are you using that now? And would that be an element of this collaboration or no? It's not what we're going to incorporate in the videos, but like any CEO and any company, we're using AI to help our employees be more efficient at what they do so they could focus on the things they love and the things that require creativity and human, intervention. So we're using AI and finance, in HR, in legal to streamline those processes.

As it relates to creating content, we do crazy things around the world. So it helps us kind of research and do feasibility studies, mapping out roots and kind of answers to questions that we have to solve, like can you make water burn or how do you send Jimmy to the Arctic? What we're not doing is using it to make the content. That's still a very creative process and we're having humans do that. But it really allows us to leverage the power of AI to take the creative team we have and help them be able to focus on the things that they love and differentiate us in storytelling. Hey, Jeff, it's Tom. You hit kind of what my question was going to be. Some would argue you guys are the biggest content creating machine out there. And yet you're

kind of highlighting the use of artificial intelligence as part of your content creation. Is there kind of any fear in your mind or your organization that this highlighting of AI will eventually hasten the use of AI to create content that can maybe supplant the kind of content that you and others create? I can see a lot of my social feed filled with people taking existing franchises and storylines and using AI generatively to create new storylines. Yeah, I think there's a lot of AI generated content. Most of it's sloped today on social media.

networks, that's not what we do. Everything we do is authentic. It's real. We don't fake anything. We don't use CGI. We're not using AI. And I think that's what differentiates us. Jimmy Donaldson, aka Mr. Beast, has such a strong global audience because we've developed a trust with our viewers. And so authenticity and great storytelling are still going to be central to everything we do. And for most creators, that's what's going to differentiate and make them successful. If it's a Me Too product, just being churned out, I don't think it's going to get traction or have longevity or monetization to it. So I'm not overly worried. We're in fact investing significantly on adding people across the entire content creation landscape. We're increasing headcount by more than 50% this year. So

in ideation, in creative, in writing, in production, in editing, in post, and analytics, the amount of content we're making is exploding. And so we're generating tons of jobs and using AI to do more of the menial tasks so how creative people could be more creative and make the impossible possible every single day. And Jeff, just to kind of follow up on that, you and Beast Industries have just made a big collaboration. That's not this one, but with a bestselling author in James Patterson in collaboration on a book. We're seeing it right now. That's the most dangerous games with James Patterson. This is about human kind of content creation on multiple levels. What led you to that partnership and what exactly do you think this will lead to down the line with regard to human content creation vis-a-vis, these content?

Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, super excited. Like the chance to work with the most prolific author of our generation, James Patterson, and the most prolific storyteller in Jimmy Donaldson, bringing two generations together to write a book that appeals to both parents and teens. I read the book with my three sons, and it was an incredible kind of bringing us together event. So the book went on sale yesterday. It's available globally. You could get it at Amazon or Walmart, Barnes & Noble, special edition in Target. And it's a thousand participants competing in a survival thriller from the Antarctic to caves to shark-infested waters. And as you read it, the visuals come to life in your mind. And we think it's a banger that's going to engage audience. across the world. We're also working on an adaptation of the book into a theatrical release movie.

We're talking about the second edition in the series. So the partnership with James has been phenomenal, and he is incredible at what he does. All right, lots of partnerships afoot right now. Thanks, Jeff Hasenball, CEO of Beast Industries on please come back and give us the updates when you guys have them. We'll do. Thank you. All right. Well, coming up on the show, Treasury Secretary Scott Vesson sounded off on AI companies, speaking of. We're going to show you the tape and discuss what it could mean for the broader complex overall. That story is coming up next. Welcome back to Power Lunch. The Trump administration is sending two very different messages on AI and the data center boom. Our Megan Kinsella joins us now from North Carolina

with the latest takeaways from the big G20 summit. Good afternoon, Megan. Dom, good afternoon from Chapel Hill. We've had two G20 summits going on down here this week. It was the finance ministers first in Asheville and now the Commerce Ministers here in Chapel Hill. And what with these events, we're getting two distinct messages emerging on AI and especially over the pushback on data centers. A really interesting split screen here emerging within the Trump administration as they try to promote AI on one hand, but also acknowledge the very real voter concerns around it on the other. So let's start with how Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent framed it at the close of the G20 summit in Asheville late yesterday. I think that the AI companies, whether it is the

builders of the data centers, whether it is the labs themselves, have done a horrendous job, horrendous job of explaining themselves to the American people. And I think we need a big reset on this. They're going to have to take some of the blame. And they are going to have to convince the American people that all the benefits will not accrue to a small group. Now compare that with what Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik said specifically about the data center pushback on our air this morning. Data centers don't use water. The data centers, this is propaganda by our adversaries to try to slow us down, right? We've got the greatest chips in the world. We've got the greatest economy in the world. Data centers are really world-class production. Build a data center

produce huge economics, right? And that economics will go to the community that surrounds it. And guys, as you know, there are very real voter concerns at play here. There's a pretty sizable protest about data centers taking place just two blocks from where I'm standing right now. A lot of concerns about the environmental impact and the water usage and that sort of thing. And even within the Trump administration, as we get closer to the midterms, clearly still trying to figure out exactly how to straddle this line as we get closer to November. Guys? I mean, they're both saying the same thing, which is that they think the concerns are overblown.

It's just that Besson saying the industry should have done a better job instead of maybe hyping the risks. That said, the more that you learn about what's going on with these frontier models, the more you understand why the people inside these companies were trying to say to everybody, hey, get ready. Kind of this crazy technology is coming. So be that as it may, there's no sense in trying to pretend like slowing it down is going to do anything to solve these problems. It's just got to be kind of playing out right on the cutting edge between all of these leading models.

Yeah, absolutely, Kelly. I think that's such an interesting point. That's a lot of the messaging that we've gotten here today, that they need more freedom to build more and that it's ultimately going to be good for everybody. And yes, there's a lot of talk about these concerns being overblown. Sam Altman saying clearly nobody likes data centers right now, but that he doesn't actually think they use that much water, similar to what we heard from Secretary Lutnik. But at some point, a messaging problem, even if it's only a PR problem,

we've sort of heard that from the White House as well, it's still a real problem when it comes to what's showing up in the polls and how voters feel about this and this growing backlash. There's some talk about, which I agree with, that data centers are just sort of the only tangible piece of AI. That makes it easier for voters to push back on them. but it also means that there is more explaining to do from these companies or from the government or from some other body to explain to people why this is a reality that they might want to get on board with ultimately. It's also a little weird, I guess, in some way that we're spending so much of the G20 talking about data centers when it really should be about world leaders and kind of what's the dynamics that we're learning from it, which I guess we learned yesterday aren't great right now.

I don't know if they're hoping for more of a kumbaya moment. They're getting some of that. There's so much promoting of AI here and a lot of talk. It's a pretty unified message about how good it's going to be ultimately. And you're right that data centers, you know, of course it's not the only thing being talked about. But I'll give you an example. Secretary Lutnik on stage earlier today asked Anthropics Tom Brown, what should G20 ministers do who want to have a piece of this AI pie

and who want to get on board with it? And what he said was the best thing that they could do by far is build more data centers in their country and help them to continue the build out. So it always keeps coming back to that. He says clearly this is the biggest bottleneck for more progress, not just in the U.S., but globally as well. Yeah, in Brazil, I'm sure you saw the report today. They're promoting how, you know, pro-Data Center they are

on the presidential campaign trail. Megan, thanks very much, Megan Kisela. We all know about SpaceX as rockets, and we're showing you one of them now. But our next guest doesn't think the company's AI business is being fully appreciated in the stock price yet. He'll join us to explain. Welcome back and take a look at shares of SpaceX down a little today, but they're at 140.

They've stabilized back above the 135 IPO price. An analysts over at Oppenheimer believe they could go higher. They're out with a new note raising the stock's price target to 280 from 250, as they believe the AI infrastructure is performing much better than expected. Joining us on set to discuss the author of that note, Tim Horan, a managing director and senior analysts at Oppenheimer. It's good to see you. Good to see you, Kelly. What prompted this note?

Basically, the stock weakness and the fact that we think to treat estimates are too low for the company. The company is doing an incredible job with AI. They really transformed themselves in the last four to six months. Six months ago, their AI business was almost people thought dying. The large language models of GROC were nowhere. They closed on cursor acquisition a little more than a month ago, and it's just been an absolute game changer. Why is it? For me, I try to keep up, but I'm okay, what is cursor?

Why is it so important? So Cursor was an application for programmers, software programmers to use, and it's agentic code. Aigentic, aha. Yeah, so they tell Cursor what they want in terms of an application. A cursive writes all the code for them. So it's like Claude, one of these. Exactly.

It's Claude has a code writer too, agentic code writing. But the data that they get from that code writing has basically been transformational, and that's what's taking the company to a next level. The data they've gotten from that, which imply, what do you mean by that? So they can see what the code writers are doing all the time. They can see what works, what doesn't work, and all the logic behind that they use to improve all their own large language models and other applications. In just the last two weeks, they came out with Grock Bot, which is an agent that can basically run your life for you over time.

Sounds good to me. So I'm curious because as we speak right now, the price of the shares is $140 bucks in change. Slightly above the $135 IPO price, but a lot of volatility. in there. At which point do you feel as though the story for investors will shift less to the space and SpaceX and more towards kind of like the AI rollouts and the AI productivity that can come from with it? And where exactly do we see the stock going if it's going to be like that and how long does it take? So their goals hit 100 billion of revenue run right by the end of the year. 70% of that will be AI and AI related. If they hit those numbers, the street estimates are way

too low for next year because the street's around the $100 billion mark for revenue next year. They'll be closer to $1.20, $1.30. And they're going to have some major upgrades coming out. I think Grockbot is about to go viral, but they have new large language models coming out. They have 4.7 coming out in 15 days. They have GROC 5 that'll be out, we think, before the end of the year. We know a few people working on GROC 5. They think it's going to be transformational.

So once you get a combination of these things, 70% of revenues being AI, 100% revenue growth per year, at least next year, I think people will start to recognize it. It makes a lot of sense that said this company came to market with already. What would it end up being a $1.9 or something trillion dollar valuation, 2.1, I don't know. But meaning even incredibly high value there puts them roughly on par with the likes of Anthropic and Open Eye already, doesn't it? So are the financials already assumed to be as strong as you're saying they could

potentially be? A great point. At a $2 trillion valuation, they really have to grow into that. And hopefully there are three, 400 billion of revenue in two, three years. And at that point, we think it is more of a $3 to $4 trillion market cap from the $2 trillion that's at right now. If you look at the way we have anticipated what's going to come in terms of a public offering from Anthropic and one that's going to come from Open AI, how does that change the landscape in your mind for how people will look at the SpaceX AI portfolio as these other large competitors come to market as well? And what does that do to the valuation over time?

Well, it depends, obviously, on what Open AI does. But Anthropic, it looks like we could be getting close to a $2 trillion valuation. And I think that'll be very good for SpaceX if we can get the $2 trillion valuation. But what we're trying to say here today, too, is that SpaceX really is now a competitive at Anthropic. It really wasn't one, you know, three, four, five months ago. And I think the world is waking up to that. All right. Tim, it's great to have you here.

Thanks so much. Appreciate it. Tim Horan Oppenheimer. Coming up, let's get over to Frank Holland for the CNBC News Update. Good afternoon again, Kelly. In the Trump administration's latest crackdown in immigration, the Department of Justice says it is requiring states to report all undocumented immigrants or lose federal funding. The new opinion from the DOJ says any state that uses federal programs for financial support to low-income residents

must report people they know to be in the country illegally. It's unclear how states would meet that standard. As temperatures climb into the 90s in parts of the Midwest and the Mid-Atlantic, the Department of Energy says electricity demand is approaching record territory. So it's taking steps today to avoid rolling blackouts by putting on a plan to stabilize the grid and mitigate that risk. America's largest grid, the PJM interconnection, serves more than 67 million people from Chicago to Washington, D.C. And the U.S. Mint today began selling gold-colored $1 U.S. coins featuring President Trump on the face of the coin. Although U.S. law only allows for deceased people to be featured on money, the administration says a 2020 law allows new ceremonial designs that commemorate the country.

country's 250th anniversary. Dom, back over to you. All right, thank you very much, Frank Holland, for the news update there. Coming up on the show, going under in order to power up, Pippa Stevens is in the Utah desert and will tell us why geothermal energy could be the untapped energy source that is the key to solving our energy issues. Whether it's AI-related or not, that's coming up next. Welcome back.

It's not just Venezuela that's making waves in the world of energy. Deep in Utah's desert, the energy company, Fervo, is drilling mines below the surface, hoping to turn Earth's heat into a major new source of clean power. And Google just signed on for its biggest deal yet. Pippa Stevens is out in Fervo's facility in Utah where they're preparing to put their first enhanced geothermal project on the grid. I still want this to come to my house, Pippa. Well, Kelly, so this is the exact same rig that you might see down in the Permian Basin. But here in Utah at Cape Station, it's being used.

for clean power. So Fervo is harnessing the trillions of dollars spent by the oil and gas industry on vertical drilling and hydraulic fracturing in order to unlock enhanced geothermal systems, potentially tapping in to dozens of gigawatts of power that was previously inaccessible. So this drill can go into the ground to measure depth of more than 19,000 feet, including a more than mile and a half long lateral. Now, once again, this is building on all of the insights that they have gleaned from the oil. oil and gas industry. However, this does have its own challenges. For one, this is granite rock, so it is much harder than shale, and the pipes are also larger, which does mean that this can be

more upfront expense, a high capex form of power. Now, forever when public back in Maine, an oversubscribed offering, raising nearly $2 billion, but the stock is down sharply since. Now, CEO Tim Latimer told me the market is underestimating just how quickly these projects can come online. Water is pumped into the ground where the 400 degrees hot rocks heats it up. It's sent to the surface, goes through a heat exchanger, and then ultimately produces baseload emissions-free power, and that is what is so attractive to Google. Fervo just signed its largest off-take agreement to date with the Hyperscale. And Kelly and Dom, we don't know the terms of these agreements, but we have seen the big tech

with deep pockets is willing to pay up for this baseload emissions-free power. Guys? Hey, Pippa, so as we talk about geothermal, it's not one that we talk about often. We talk a lot about nuclear, oil and gas. How much can the geothermal portion of energy generation be a part of the total pie for energy generation in America, given what we need for AI in the coming years? So, Don, we really need to distinguish here between geothermal and enhanced geothermal, because traditional geothermal, kind of 1.0 geothermal, requires very specific geothermal. conditions. This is opening a potentially vast swath of the U.S. for this type of enhanced geothermal system. Now, right now, geothermal is about four gigawatts of the U.S. grid. That's less than 1%

of total power. The DOE says that this could grow to 100 gigawatts by 2050. Pervo specifically, they have more than 600,000 of acres that they have the land rights to, and they say that their portfolio could generate more than 40 gigawatts. And what's important here is that when we look look at new energy, things like small modular reactors, that are still years away and it's unproving technology. This is essentially shale 2.0. This has been proven. We have data that shows that this works. And so that is what Fervo is saying, that this can be brought online much faster in a more de-risk fashion. However, the big issue right now is still expense. And they say that they can bring it down to $3,000 per kilowatt long term. The well

their drilling right here are 5,500. That is down for more than 19,000 for their very first will drill just three years ago. So the costs are coming down, but that is the hurdle right here. But clearly, big potential here, and a lot rests on the success of this one project. It is the first enhanced geothermal system to connect to the grid in the world. All right, Pippa Stevens, out in Utah with the story on enhanced geothermal. Thank you very much for that. Coming up on the show, a check up on the international traveler and whether they the U.S.'s summer of big events, like the World Cup, delivered a global crowd. That story's coming up.

Welcome back. The travel CEOs meeting with the president today to discuss how to keep the summer travel momentum going are going to have an interesting story. The latest summer report from the MasterCard Economics Institute, the World Cup, America's Major League Baseball ballparks, and then national parks as well, were actually massive draws for international travelers in June and July. For more on that, and new report. Let's bring in Mastercard Economics Institute chief economist Michelle Meyer for that. Michelle, you scoured through all kinds of data for this. So just what is the biggest draw for these international travelers? And can we keep it up if we don't have a World Cup in those

big events? Well, it was certainly meaningful. We saw quite a lot of international travel focus on events, as you noted. So for example, Morocco and Croatia, we saw the greatest spending this summer from those two countries that we've seen on records since our data goes back to 2000 or in our recent study. Ballparks mattered as well. So eight out of the top 30 destinations of spending for international travels were at ballparks. That's something that will continue. So sports in general, events, concerts, these big moments in time really matter. And they seem to be making a pretty significant difference when it comes to travel decisions. And then what travelers do when they're on destination is so fascinating.

So we're looking at how they're spending of restaurants and bars and how that differs based off of the origin of the traveler. So an interesting fact statistic that we found for Japanese travelers into the U.S., 10% of the restaurant spending is done at steakhouses. That seems to be their preferences. So it's interesting as well because if you take a look at the drivers behind it, we know that sports is going to be a big draw. I guess the question becomes,

These travelers are traveling because they have the means to do so and the desire to do so. It's also maybe cultural as well. But is there any kind of a differentiation you can make like we do here in the U.S. about the income spectrum level about what's driving the spending? Is it more middle class oriented? Are we talking about higher spenders that are the ones doing all of this kind of maybe U.S. travel and spending here? Well, of course, it's the case that those that have more purchasing power are going to have a little bit more freedom and flexibility to go out.

and to spend. But I don't think it's concentrated just amongst that cohort. I think what we've realized from consumers of the last several years is that they are really mindful about how they're spending. When it comes to an experience, when it comes to travel, when it comes to seeing a show or seeing their favorite performer or seeing their favorite sports team, they may find a way to allocate that budget towards that. And it may mean they have to cut back spending somewhere else. So they have to make difficult decisions. But you really see that those choices show up in terms of how consumers are out there spending and prioritizing their dollars. Okay.

And another final point here, travel itself, other than the spending here, is also going to be a big point of concern, given some of these elevated fuel costs and some of the maybe reduced routes and the capacity issues there. Do you think that that's going to be a headwind for travel and leisure globally going forward? Is there just going to be price fatigue globally? because of these types of issues? Well, I think they're figuring out where and when they can travel, right? So it's, again, the same thing about gathering as much information and trying to navigate the relative price shock. So for those destinations where it's more expensive,

they may choose to travel somewhere else. If they feel like they don't have the same amount of choice to get to one location, they'll try to figure out where they can go. And that's not just for travel, and that's definitely not just for international. We see that day after day when you look at how U.S. consumers are spending and trying to maximize their budget as well. The more information they have, the better they are equipped to navigate these relative price shocks. All right. Michelle, good to see you.

Thanks so much today. Great to see you. Michelle Meyer on MasterCard Economics Institute. Coming up, we'll head back down to Caracas, Venezuela. Check in with Brian Sullivan on the latest development. Stay with us. Welcome back. Could we see the first market rally of the week and the month?

Stocks are up across the board as we head into the final hour. Russell 2000's leading the way. yields taking a breather, but a lot of pressure coming from the oil complex. On that note, let's head back to Venezuela, where Brian Sullivan is live in Caracas. Brian, what are your takeaways from today's historic event? Yeah, listen, I know there's a lot going on. Things are heating back up around Iran as well. We did, by the way, talk about that with Secretary Wright and go to the, like I said, CNBC.com and check out that interview. Here are my three big takeaways from really was an amazing and historic day in Caracas. It's not over yet. By the way, my three, my three. Three big takeaways so far is that, number one, all these legal protections, these new laws, new tax laws, new protections, the presence of the Secretary of Energy today, it's all designed to increase investor confidence. If you don't have confidence in a country or a company, you don't invest in it. Venezuela wants investment, it needs investment, they want to increase confidence. Number two, to that point, will we gain a million barrels a day over the next year between Chevron, the other deals in the U.S.?

million barrels more per day could happen. And then I will say this, Kelly, this is a big deal, literally, and I don't mean the dollar value. In the press conference earlier, about an hour ago, there were about 55 members of the local media, 55 different organizations. We got a front row seat, and I turn around and look that I said to somebody, it's amazing, and they said, yeah, this would have never happened in the previous administrations. In other words, maybe there's a freedom of press and a freedom of expression here that does signal the dawn of a new day. I will say this, the interim president of Venezuela, Delsi Rodriguez, said this. With increased oil production comes increased incomes from Venezuelan people.

And with that, I'll leave it. And the hope that this does lift up a country that can use some lifting. Yeah, absolutely. Brian, really appreciate it. Great stuff being down there for us. Brian Sullivan and Caracas, Venezuela. Real quick, we have a big show tomorrow. Marcy Frost, CEO of Calpers, Victoria's Secret CEO, Hillary Super. We'll talk to the CEO of Equinix as well. Dom, thanks for being here. All right. Thanks for watching. Again, closing bell starts right now,

guys.