https://fly.deeproot.energy/What leaked out of the closed rooms this week.https://fly.deeproot.energy/?i=2026-10-14&t=fii-riyadh-hybrid-after-attacks2026-10-14/fii-riyadh-hybrid-after-attacksWed, 14 Oct 2026 10:23:19 -0500Gulf capital that funds AI power campuses is now pricing a security premium; expect slower sovereign-fund decisions and more virtual pitches this quarter. Reuters reported on Oct 13 and 14 that Saudi Arabia plans a hybrid Future Investment Initiative so executives can attend remotely, after a week of missile and drone attacks on Riyadh's airport. The oil majors' CEOs had already dropped off the WPC Energy Congress agenda on Oct 12. The Gulf's flagship money-and-energy rooms are going virtual or closed-door under Houthi fire, and the oil majors' CEOs have already stayed home. For anyone raising capital from Saudi or Gulf sovereign funds, the signal is delay and distance, not cancellation. TotalEnergies' absence from Riyadh and the closed IEF plenary mean fewer public commitments from the gas and power side this month. Watch who actually shows up in person at FII on Oct 26 and whether ADIPEC in Abu Dhabi in early November holds.https://fly.deeproot.energy/?i=2026-10-14&t=ai-labs-secret-catastrophe-drills2026-10-14/ai-labs-secret-catastrophe-drillsWed, 14 Oct 2026 10:23:19 -0500The scenario they're drilling is an AI cyberattack that takes down power or water, so grid and data center operators should expect post-incident rules written in advance by the labs. Axios reported Oct 9 that executives at OpenAI, Anthropic and other AI companies are privately war-gaming "the day after" a catastrophic AI event, most likely a large cyberattack on banking, internet, power or water, and preparing to brief Congress fast. The labs are confirmed to be running private preparedness drills, and the scenario at the center of them is an AI-enabled cyberattack on critical infrastructure including the grid. That matters for anyone building private power for AI tenants because post-incident rules on compute, model access and infrastructure security would hit data center operators directly. The timeline claims come from anonymous insiders and should be read as industry mood, not forecast. Watch for a leak of the actual scenario documents and for Anthropic's infrastructure defense program to show up in tenant security requirements.https://fly.deeproot.energy/?i=2026-10-14&t=amazon-ends-data-center-ndas2026-10-14/amazon-ends-data-center-ndasWed, 14 Oct 2026 10:23:19 -0500Counties and cities will now expect site, power and water details in the open; any tenant deal of ours that goes through a local approval loses that secrecy cover. AWS CEO Matt Garman wrote on October 2 that Amazon no longer uses NDAs with the government agencies it works with on data center projects, and pledged $1 billion over five years to host communities. The two largest cloud builders have now both dropped secrecy agreements with local governments, which makes NDAs on public approvals a reputational liability for everyone else in the buildout. Amazon paired the change with a $1 billion community pledge and a public defense of data centers on water, rates and emissions, which signals the industry sees local moratoriums as a real throttle on capacity. For a private power campus in Reeves County, the lever is that tenants and counties will now expect open disclosure of power and water figures as table stakes. Watch whether the other hyperscalers match it and whether county commissions in Texas start demanding the same terms.https://fly.deeproot.energy/?i=2026-10-14&t=cms-private-slack-ai-lobbying2026-10-14/cms-private-slack-ai-lobbyingWed, 14 Oct 2026 10:23:19 -0500The same companies are using closed government channels to shape AI rules before they're public. KFF Health News reported Oct 9 that Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services officials have run a private Slack workspace since August 2025 where about 1,700 members, mostly tech executives and investors, push AI health apps and patient-record access. This is a documented case of AI companies and administration officials working policy in a closed channel outside public notice, built on primary records rather than anonymous claims. It doesn't touch energy or data centers, and the health-app fight is someone else's business. The pattern is the point: Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and Microsoft got an unlisted FDA audience through a chat room, and the advisory-committee question could force the channel into the open. Watch for a congressional or inspector general follow-up on the FACA issue.https://fly.deeproot.energy/?i=2026-10-14&t=maher-trump-second-private-dinner2026-10-14/maher-trump-second-private-dinnerWed, 14 Oct 2026 10:23:19 -0500Shows which outside voices Trump hosts in private, and friends will text it. On his Club Random podcast released Monday Oct 12, Bill Maher told agent Ari Emanuel that Trump invited him to dinner again "next week" after a text exchange, despite Trump calling their 2025 dinner a waste of time in February. Trump is again hosting a prominent liberal critic for a private dinner, and Maher is again the one disclosing it. The dinner is unconfirmed by the White House and the timing is unclear from the podcast alone. Nothing here touches power, gas or data centers. The only thing to watch is whether Maher reports on what was discussed, as he did after the first one.https://fly.deeproot.energy/?i=2026-10-14&t=trump-amodei-private-dinner2026-10-14/trump-amodei-private-dinnerWed, 14 Oct 2026 10:23:19 -0500The one item to track: Trump told TIME he "might" take government equity in OpenAI and Anthropic. Trump dined privately with Dario Amodei and his wife at the White House late Sunday September 27, the first one-on-one meeting between them. The White House released no details of what was discussed. A private dinner with no readout thawed the public relationship between Trump and the one frontier lab he had been attacking, and within 48 hours Amodei was at the White House signing a safety accord. The substance of the dinner exists only in Trump's own telling, which is light on specifics and heavy on the Super Intelligence rebrand. Nothing here changes a power or data center deal term. The thing to watch is the government equity remark, which would reshape how frontier labs fund compute if it ever became policy.https://fly.deeproot.energy/?i=2026-10-14&t=openai-office-hidden-recorder2026-10-14/openai-office-hidden-recorderWed, 14 Oct 2026 10:23:19 -0500The bugged room was where OpenAI met partners and government officials; a routine sweep found the device. Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, a Saudi national on OpenAI's product team, was arrested October 9 and charged with intercepting oral communications after a recorder was found plugged into a TV in an executive conference room at OpenAI's San Francisco office. A frontier lab's executive meeting room was bugged by one of its own engineers, and the only reason it surfaced was a routine countersurveillance sweep. The charge is wiretap-style interception, not espionage, and prosecutors have not said who, if anyone, the recordings were for. For anyone taking sensitive partner meetings, the lesson is that physical sweeps caught what network monitoring did not. Watch the October 19 detention hearing for any filing that names a purpose or a recipient.https://fly.deeproot.energy/?i=2026-10-14&t=thiel-nashville-antichrist-leak2026-10-14/thiel-nashville-antichrist-leakWed, 14 Oct 2026 10:23:19 -0500The loudest money in the tech right is arguing that AI regulation itself is the enemy, and the room is still leaking. Politico's Decoded newsletter obtained recordings of the first two Nashville Antichrist lectures, held Sept 28 and Oct 5 under a device ban, and reported Oct 8 that Thiel accused Obama and Pope Leo XIV of using AI fear for popularity. A device-banned, off-the-record series leaked within days, for the second year running, which says something about how porous these rooms are. Thiel's message is that AI regulation is the Antichrist's project and that Obama and the Pope are riding AI fear because it polls well. For our tribe the practical read is that the biggest check-writer on the tech right is framing any federal AI brake as illegitimate, which shapes how the Vance wing talks about compute buildout. Watch for leaks from the Oct 12 and Oct 19 sessions and for a Vatican or Obama response.https://fly.deeproot.energy/?i=2026-10-14&t=ai-safety-hottest-club2026-10-14/ai-safety-hottest-clubWed, 14 Oct 2026 10:23:19 -0500The AI safety crowd now has PACs and members of Congress in the room, which is where compute rules get drafted. Politico's Christine Mui reported Oct 7 from The Curve, a three-day, invite-only AI safety conference at a converted inn in Berkeley, where OpenAI, Anthropic and Google DeepMind figures mixed with members of Congress, state officials and donors under the Chatham House Rule. A year ago this was safety advocates trying to get politicians to show up; this year the politicians, donors and PAC organizers came on their own. The ideas circulating are oversight by third-party monitors and the risk of AI improving itself out of human control, not anything about the grid. For our world the relevance is indirect: the people who will write 2027 and 2028 AI rules are being courted in Berkeley attics, and those rules eventually touch compute siting and reporting. Watch for the named PACs to surface and for the D.C. edition next year.https://fly.deeproot.energy/?i=2026-10-14&t=paxton-leaked-audio2026-10-14/paxton-leaked-audioWed, 14 Oct 2026 10:23:19 -0500The Republican nominee for Texas Senate told donors fuel costs and affordability are his biggest problem and that he can't control them. Recordings from a Sept 24 lunch for about a dozen lobbyists on Capitol Hill, hosted by Williams & Jensen, kept surfacing this week: Axios on fuel prices and the Iran war, the Texas Tribune on benefit cuts, and CNN on Sen. John Cornyn. Paxton defended himself on Fox News Oct 11. One opposition attendee at a dozen-person lobbyist lunch has now fed five separate outlets, and says more may come. The substance is a candidate telling donors privately that fuel costs, the Iran war and a Trump convention are sinking him while saying the opposite in public. For our tribe the takeaway is about room discipline: a Capitol Hill donor lunch with no device rule leaked clip by clip for two weeks. Watch whether the leaker releases more before early voting opens Oct 19 and whether the super PAC money stays in.