Bernard Looney, whose tenure as CEO of BP ended with him embattled in controversy, is coming into the AI age as the brand new CEO of Wyoming-based Prometheus Hyperscale, main a bevy of knowledge heart campus developments within the Cowboy State in addition to the Lone Star state of Texas.
Looney, who pushed BP towards renewables within the vitality transition, resigned all of the sudden from that firm’s CEO publish in 2023 amid a probe by the corporate into undisclosed private relationships. Since then, BP has struggled financially, chopping prices and pivoting away from renewables and again to fossil fuels.
Coincidentally, BP’s new CEO takes over April 1. Meg O’Neill, the previous Woodside Power head, turns into the first-ever girl CEO of a Huge Oil large.
Looney grew to become non-executive chair of Prometheus in late 2024. He takes over as CEO from the corporate’s founder, Trenton Thornock, who will stay a board member.
Prometheus is primarily centered on two flagship knowledge heart tasks in Wyoming—in Evanston and Casper—with a mixed preliminary capability of two.5 gigawatts, sufficient to energy virtually 2 million properties. The 2 tasks are anticipated to value greater than $30 billion.
Prometheus is targeted on pace of development and cleaner vitality, using a mix of behind-the-meter pure gasoline and battery storage to get tasks accomplished after which make the most of extra wind, photo voltaic, and even superior nuclear energy. The info facilities are anticipated to make use of a proprietary geothermal cooling know-how that doesn’t require water, in response to the corporate.
“As artificial intelligence and digital technologies continue to reshape our world, it is crucial that we build the necessary infrastructure responsibly. This is the mission we have set ourselves,” Looney stated in a press release, touting Prometheus as being on the “forefront of next-generation data center development.”
Prometheus is backed by In-Q-Tel, the enterprise capital fund backed by the Central Intelligence Company and the broader U.S. intelligence group, and others, and has energy partnerships with Conduit Energy, France’s Engie, Sam Altman–backed nuclear participant Oklo, and extra.
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