Latest news with #ScottStrazik
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Why GE Vernova's stock is power surging after just one year of existence
Storied General Electric doubled down on fossil fuels in the power sector a decade ago with its largest industrial acquisition ever, paying almost $11 billion for the French conglomerate Alstom's electric business to dramatically grow GE Power. GE made the purchase just months before the oil and gas sector crashed and the renewable energy sector began to take off. The deal was dubbed a boondoggle and the latest misstep in GE's many struggles. Even when GE decided to split into three parts in 2021, including spinning off its power and renewables business, the focus was on clean energy. The name GE Vernova loosely translates to 'new green,' meant to reflect a new and innovative low-carbon era. But the funny thing is that green company holds GE's massive gas-turbine manufacturing business. And, thus, the once ill-fated GE Power division has hit it big. After years of seemingly poor timing, GE Vernova struck the zeitgeist when it finally launched as a publicly traded standalone in April 2024. Since then, GE Vernova's shares have surged nearly 250%, including a massive 65% spike just since the beginning of April to new highs, up to a market cap of about $125 billion. Just a few years ago, electricity demand was essentially flat, so two factors dominated investment concerns in the mature power generation business: cost and climate impact, giving wind and solar potential advantages. Now, the world is suddenly changed with new data centers for artificial intelligence spurring the fastest growth in power demand in decades. The demand for gas turbines for power plants is booming and they cannot be built quickly enough. 'One of the pinnacle technologies underlying the modern world is the high-temperature, high-efficiency gas turbine, and only a few companies on Earth can make the highest efficiency turbines,' said Mark Nelson, the managing director of the consultancy Radiant Energy Group. 'GE Vernova is one of the few.' The company's combined backlog of orders for new gas turbines and maintenance services for its existing customers now totals $123 billion. GE Vernova reported first-quarter earnings of 91 cents per share from sales of $8 billion, easily beating Wall Street analysts' estimates of 45 cents on $7.6 billion. Highlighting the dramatic speed of its growth, GE Vernova posted a loss of $106 million, or 47 cents per share, at this point last year. 'Sitting here today, '26 and '27 are largely sold out, we are approaching filling out '28, and starting to sign agreements for later years,' GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik said on last month's earnings call. 'I give that context to just frame that I continue to see this market normalizing to a higher-for-longer gas market. The world needs more dispatchable power generation to support economic growth and national security.' GE Vernova declined Fortune's request to interview Strazik, but said: 'We are just getting started, and the best is yet to come.' Notably, the company said its backlog of orders for turbines and maintenance service grew by nearly $4.5 billion in three months. 'Rising electricity demand is good for anybody who produces power generation equipment, and GE is a leader both on the natural gas turbine side and also on the wind side,' said Brett Castelli, an equity analyst for the research firm Morningstar. Power demand looks set to grow for decades to come as the country transitions to using more and more electricity for manufacturing, vehicles, heating and cooling, he said. 'While electric vehicles are a 20-year thing, the biggest thing in the next five years is all these AI data centers,' Castelli said. 'That's why the stock has become so data center-centric.' The company's signature 7F heavy-duty gas turbine takes just 11 minutes to reach full capacity. The machine—essentially a giant jet engine—is designed with specially-cast blades made with single-crystal alloys and precisely punctured holes that allow turbines to reach temperatures that would typically melt metal, harnessing huge amounts of energy. Unlike the wind turbines from GE Vernova's weaker-performing renewables arm, the gas turbines take up relatively tiny amounts of land and can run virtually anytime regardless of the weather. And while GE Vernova is pinning hopes on building next-generation nuclear reactors in large numbers in the 2030s, gas power plants are constructed now in just a few years—still not quickly enough for demand forecasts. Just last week, and in conjunction with President Trump's Middle East visit, GE Vernova announced power generation and grid initiatives in Saudi Arabia worth up to $14.2 billion, primarily focused on gas-fired power. But those nuclear dreams show sparks as well. Earlier in May, Canadian regulators gave the company the green light to start construction of its first small modular reactors—essentially a smaller, modernized version of the large-scale boiling water reactors it once built in Japan and the United States—with Ontario's state power company. In the U.S., the Tennessee Valley Authority this week submitted the application to build the first American project using GE Vernova's BWRX-300 reactors. While Trump has sought to block new wind projects in federal waters and on public lands, Strazik says his company's two turbine divisions go hand-in-hand, with the gas turbines providing critical backup to wind turbines when the air is calm. 'Ultimately, gas is the force multiplier for more wind and solar to get built,' he said in an appearance on Jim Cramer's CNBC show last month. 'Without gas, you can't get to renewable penetration rates that the world is looking for.' This broader movement to build power generation—gas and renewables—is now defined by the same forces that underpinned the U.S. economy after the Second World War, including national security, Strazik said in the earnings call. 'To put today's investment super cycle into perspective in terms of energy needs and decarbonization, the scale of load growth we're seeing in North America is the most significant since the post-World War II industrial build-out,' he said. 'But, unlike then, the growth is global.' This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Boston Globe
06-05-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
What's the most pressing concern for big companies this earnings season? Hint: It starts with ‘T.'
The shift is no surprise, given the stock market's violent reaction to " Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Executives on these earning calls present a stoic front: Most don't sound all that happy about the turn of events, though they don't criticize the president directly for picking trade fights with other countries. The prices on everything from aluminum cans to Dungeons & Dragons box sets could be affected. Just how much gets passed on to clients and consumers will vary greatly, from business to business and product to product. Advertisement Consider Cambridge-based energy company GE Vernova, where chief executive Scott Strazik and chief financial officer Kenneth Parks probably would have preferred fielding questions about order backlogs and Advertisement Instead, they responded to queries about how the Trump tariffs are resulting in an additional $300 million to $400 million in inflationary costs this year for the company, though the executives will continue to try to 'mitigate' the impacts (to use the buzzword of the moment). If it's any consolation to Strazik and his crew, their former colleagues at For GE Vernova, the supersized tariff that Trump is imposing on Chinese imports is the biggest headache, though the broader tariffs of 10 percent for numerous other countries aren't helping matters. But for now, at least, GE Vernova is holding firm on its overall outlook for 2025. On the same day as GE Vernova's earnings, Waltham-based lab equipment supplier Thermo Fisher Scientific warned of a '$400 million headwind' in 2025 from the China tariff, because of the effects on China-sourced parts and China's retaliatory tariffs on products that Thermo Fisher makes in America and ships to that country. Also that day, Marlborough-based Boston Scientific chief executive Michael Mahoney forecast a $200 million hit to his company from the tariffs this year. As a result, BSX is Advertisement Hasbro, meanwhile, is speeding away from China as quickly as it can, with hundreds of items currently made in China being moved to factories in other countries by the end of this year. Chief financial officer Gina Goetter said Hasbro execs hope to be making fewer than 40 percent of its products in China by 2026. Hasbro, based in Pawtucket, R.I., is moving hundreds of items currently made in China to factories in other countries by the end of this year. Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff CEO Chris Cocks seemed happy to report that the Pawtucket company is still making most of its board games, such as Monopoly, at a factory in Cocks said he is accelerating a $1 billion cost savings plan as a result of the tariffs. And he had just announced he's putting off a decision about whether to move the company headquarters to Boston or stay closer to home in Providence. Meanwhile, the bad news keeps piling up. Teradyne's customers in the semiconductor sector are pulling back, preventing the North Reading-based manufacturer from offering any financial predictions beyond the current quarter. Boston Beer executives got peppered with questions about how tariffs are driving up expenses and driving down consumers' thirst for Sam Adams. And at New Britain-based tool maker Stanley Black & Decker, executives said that Not everyone seems to be worrying, though. Michael Battles at Norwell-based Clean Harbors promised that tariff concerns are 'a winner for us' in part because it could mean more reshoring of manufacturing in the US; that in turn means factories here will have more industrial waste to discard, possibly to Clean Harbors crews. And at Yankee Candle parent Newell Brands, chief executive Chris Peterson boasted that his company is well positioned to benefit from the craziness — he used the phase 'global trade alignment' ― after a 'period of temporary disruption.' That's primarily because the company had already started aggressively moving production out of China to other countries. Advertisement Citi analyst James Hardiman seemed to sum up the tumult perfectly, when he asked the Hasbro executives this simple question on their call: 'How do you even make decisions in this current environment?' Cocks replied by saying he's assuming the US will get to a 'reasonable and logical trade policy ultimately, once all the negotiations are done.' Can Hardiman and other analysts take that to the Monopoly bank? That remains to be seen. For now, these earning season comments sure make Trump's trade fights look like a roll of the dice. Jon Chesto can be reached at
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Duke Energy to procure up to 11 GE Vernova natural gas turbines
GE Vernova has agreed to supply Duke Energy with 11 US-produced natural gas turbines. The collaboration is intended to address growing electricity demand from the manufacturing sector, digital infrastructure and population expansion. Duke Energy president and CEO Harry Sideris said: 'As we continue to experience unprecedented growth in our service territories, securing the necessary materials to build critical infrastructure and meet the energy demand is integral to delivering value for our customers and other stakeholders. 'We value our collaboration with forward-thinking partners who assist us in advancing our energy modernisation strategy.' The agreement covers the potential deployment of up to 11 7HA gas turbines, in alignment with Duke Energy's resource development strategies. These turbines are expected to enhance energy infrastructure and improve network stability. The initiative will support Duke's ability to manage rising power demands efficiently. This development is in addition to eight 7HA gas turbines the company has already acquired. It aligns with Duke Energy's long-term strategy to ensure energy dependability and cost control for its customers. The expanded turbine portfolio will help accommodate various projected growth scenarios. The deal is supported by GE Vernova's earlier decision to scale up its Greenville, South Carolina facility. This manufacturing expansion is designed to meet growing turbine orders from both existing and future customers. The Greenville upgrade forms part of a broader $600m investment plan for manufacturing within the US. Of that, nearly $300m is directed towards GE Vernova's Gas Power operations. The funding will be used to modernise manufacturing workflows and increase output efficiency. Legacy production methods at the facility will be replaced by streamlined lean manufacturing systems. This shift is anticipated to enhance supplier capacity and generate more than 1,500 new positions nationwide. The changes are aimed at supporting a more agile and scalable production model. Deploying the turbines at Duke Energy sites will allow the company to leverage existing infrastructure. Utilisation of current transmission systems is expected to help control costs and speed up implementation. GE Vernova CEO Scott Strazik said: 'This arrangement with Duke Energy and the significant expansion of our US manufacturing facilities illustrate our ability and commitment to developing innovative solutions that our customers require to meet today and tomorrow's energy demands. 'We are proud to be able to supply these Greenville, SC, manufactured gas turbines to a leading US energy company and service to its consumers.' "Duke Energy to procure up to 11 GE Vernova natural gas turbines" was originally created and published by Power Technology, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site. Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
GE Vernova's CEO on thriving through tariffs and supply chain shifts
Amid tariff whiplash and the rejuggling of global trade, GE Vernova's CEO Scott Strazik is finding a way to stay 'relentlessly optimistic.' Strazik returns to the Rapid Response podcast to share how the company plans to continue its success as one of Wall Street's top-performing stocks, despite looming supply chain disruption and market unpredictability. Zillow turns full-blown housing market bear—just look at its new forecast Apple canceled 'Mythic Quest.' Then it did something unheard of in the world of streaming TV What's behind the rise in interim CEOs This is an abridged transcript of an interview from Rapid Response, hosted by the former editor-in-chief of Fast Company Bob Safian. From the team behind the Masters of Scale podcast, Rapid Response features candid conversations with today's top business leaders navigating real-time challenges. Subscribe to Rapid Response wherever you get your podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. This embedded content is not available in your region. GE Vernova is now one year into life as an independent public company, much to celebrate—your revenue rose to $35 billion. In 2024, GE Vernova was the year's fourth best performing stock. Again, a lot to celebrate. But in 2025, the external environment hasn't been as friendly. The Trump tariffs have everyone scrambling. How do you think about this moment? How do you think about it compared to a year ago at this time? Well, our end markets really haven't changed very much, Bob. I would start there. I mean, we continue to see very strong end markets in our larger core businesses and gas power, in our electrification and grid businesses. So, frankly, there's going to be moments of dislocation between the stock market and our end markets. It doesn't mean that depending on where the tariffs go, that doesn't create an opportunity for us to prove out our nimbleness and managing our global supply chain, and we're going to have to do that. But I think it's frankly an opportunity for us to demonstrate how much we've grown in our first year as a public company to be able to operate in this kind of environment. How do the tariffs practically impact your business? I mean, you're a global business, so changes in global relationships and reputation, all of that requires some adjustment. Yeah, I think even if you take a step back and think about some of the stuff I've talked to our investors about on where we want to make investments, we want to invest in our business where we can improve the durability or the resiliency of our supply chain, and that's simply because we have a lot of organic growth that's coming in our businesses, irrespective of any policy changes. Now, policies are going to change, they're going to evolve. This is going to force us to relook at where we source certain things. It'll force us to revisit our terms with some of our suppliers in different locations, but we know how to do that. So, we don't want to be too fast to respond as we're kind of trying to make sense of everything. But I'd also rather be a company that is quick on its feet. In this environment, President Trump announced the tariffs on a Wednesday afternoon after the market closed. Rest assured by Friday afternoon, our teams were actively working evaluation plans of what our alternatives are. Now, it doesn't mean within 40 hours you pull the trigger in a dynamic period of time. So, we're working it pretty hard right now to figure out what our alternatives are, and with a growing backlog, to the extent our backlog is growing so substantially, that also puts us in a privileged position with our supply base to come and say, 'Listen, this is what it's going to take to keep serving GE Vernova.' It's almost like there's been a pullback around the very idea of globalization that maybe it's not good to be a global organization. Do you think about that? Well, when I think about my first four months of the year. I mean, my first trip of the year was to Singapore and Japan, the first week of January. I had a great trip in the Middle East in February visiting Saudi, Qatar, Dubai, Abu Dhabi. These are all important markets for us. I think we've got opportunities to serve these markets throughout, and we're going to work really hard to earn those opportunities. At the same time, long before announcements with tariffs, the reality is there has been an evolving shift with globalization. There's certainly been a lot of strategic moves towards concepts of decoupling from the Chinese supply chain explicitly. So, we've been working that over a long period of time. Now, the last week certainly has been broader than any one country, and with it, it forces you to really revisit it in an even more intimate way, what you do and where you do it, but we can do that. We're capable of taking that on, and I'm highly confident we can use this moment to make ourselves a better company for the long term. You have announced investing $600 million in U.S. factories yourself creating over 1,500 jobs. Yes. How much does GE Vernova need to be an American company? I would say more we need to be a local company for our local markets. I think in your bigger markets, you're going to have a local supply chain to serve that market, local teams to serve that market. We're a global company where, at this moment, one of our most important local markets certainly is the U.S., and that's why we're investing into that market. But we're not going to not invest in some of these other countries that are attractive and markets too to be local there. There's been some speculation that the speed with which U.S. manufacturing can ramp up to replace things that might have come from abroad, that that's going to take a while and there's going to be disruption. Is that something for your business that you see that you worry about, or is that part of the nimbleness, I guess, that you're talking about on the part of your team? We do have a fair amount of industrial footprint in the U.S. that allows us to build on existing assets. So, the $600 million investment is reinvesting in existing assets, 1,500 jobs to locations that already have the concrete poured. They already have the cranes. They already have the logistics with the railroad adjacent to the factory. So, we can move reasonably quickly. Now, to the extent the policy environment drives us towards greenfield investments to reindustrialize parts of our supply chain, that would take longer, truth be told. And that's a multiyear journey that, at this point, we aren't necessarily evaluating, but we will keep looking in that regard. But first and foremost, we're going to keep trying to eliminate waste in our existing processes and build upon the assets we have, and we feel like that can carry us for a period of time. Now, where we don't have it, as an example, we announced and closed an acquisition of a supply chain footprint from Woodward. That was a vertical supply chain integration of a small part of Woodward's business, but for our gas business, an important part of our supply chain where we thought it made more sense to just have that internal. How much do you tune your long-term decision-making when there's noise and change and pressure in the near term? We need to scrutinize how long the status quo is, for sure. And that can be hard to do in a volatile moment that we're in. But if nothing else, it gives us a chance to really challenge ourselves on what we have been doing, whether there's a different way to do it. And that's the way we talk about it internally is: 'This is an opportunity for us to really revisit past assumptions and think about how we can be better.' Now, in some cases, we may gain conviction with exactly the play we've been running. In others, there may be a better alternative. I mean, do you have, sort of, I don't know, leadership principles or lessons that you use as a touchstone when things do get volatile? Well, we're not going to suck our thumbs and cry on our beer as things kind of change. We want to use change as an opportunity to improve. In that regard, this moment when we're just reaching our one-year anniversary as a public company is a moment when I feel pretty confident we've got our feet on the ground, and we can play into this and use this moment of change to play offense on not just how we want 2025 to go, because we won't change 2025 in any material way certainly from a supply chain strategy, but we can use 2025 to challenge ourselves for the next decade, and that's very much what we're doing. This post originally appeared at to get the Fast Company newsletter:
Yahoo
04-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Gas-powered site planned for former Homer City coal property
HOMER CITY, Pa. – The site of a former Homer City coal plant will see new life powering the artificial intelligence sector – perhaps as soon as 2027. A partnership called Homer City Redevelopment is planning to develop a 3,200-acre 'data center' – and the nation's largest natural gas plant – at the site to support the energy-needy AI industry. It's a move project planners said will create or support 1,000 jobs. The site is 25 miles northwest of Johnstown. And planners said the campus would include the nation's largest natural gas-fired power plant to date. The facility's seven GE Vernova turbines would generate 4.5 gigawatts of power – more than double the output capacity of the former Homer City goal station – part of which would be connected to the mid-Atlantic's PJM Interconnection energy grid through the property's pre-existing infrastructure, officials said. 'This project will honor Homer City's place in the proud history of Pennsylvania energy generation, while accelerating the state and local community's ability to meet the needs of a rapidly shifting energy landscape,' said William Wexler, president and CEO of HCR. Big Tech's rapidly evolving usage of artificial intelligence – and the demand for it – requires vasts amounts of electricity and modern data centers to house large-scale servers and other Information Technology infrastructure. Western Pennsylvania – Indiana and Cambria counties included – sit above the Marcellus Shale and its abundant pockets of natural gas that could be used to fuel the campus center. The project has been in the works for some time. Homer City Redevelopment already imploded the former, outdated coal plant. It outlined renderings of the project and a list of partners Wednesday. Partners include Massachussetts-based General Electric offshoot GE Vernova and Kiewit Power Constructors, which will build the facility. As designed, the project would develop a generating station whose greenhouse gases would be more than 60% lower per-megawatt hour than its predecessor. 'This project demonstrates the best in what investing in power can do; more affordable and reliable energy for everyone, revitalizing local economic development benefits with thousands of skilled jobs and enabling Pennsylvania to help lead the future of AI,' said Vernova CEO Scott Strazik, who added the company was honored that its U.S. manufactured turbines will be powering the project. Kiewit Power Constructors will build the facility. 'Alongside our best-in-class partners, we have been working tirelessly to ensure that Homer City's transformation can happen as quickly and seamlessly as possible,' Wexler said. The goal is to begin installing turbines as soon as 2026 and begin operating the facility in 2027.
