NUAI Rockets Nearly 50% in a Day After AI Data‑Center Milestone—What Changed on Sept. 25

Key facts (Sept. 25–26, 2025):

Price action: New Era Energy & Digital (NASDAQ: NUAI) closed +49.84% at $1.38 on Thursday, Sept. 25 on heavy volume (76.6M shares). Early pre‑market Friday, Sept. 26 showed prints around $1.86 (5:30 a.m. ET). ^[1]
Catalyst: Coverage spread on Phase One engineering completion for NUAI’s flagship Texas Critical Data Centers (TCDC) project—a 50/50 JV with Sharon AI—designed to scale to 1 GW of AI‑optimized capacity and targeting a pathway to initial power in early 2027. ^[2]
Media on Sept. 25: Proactive Investors (sponsored) posted a detailed update mid‑day; market “top gainers” dashboards also flagged NUAI’s surge. ^[3]
Strategic build‑out, Sept. (context): TCDC announced a 1,600‑mile Texas fiber MOU (Sept. 17) and an LOI for a proprietary behind‑the‑meter power solution for its Ector County campus (Sept. 10). Earlier (Sept. 2) it disclosed a strategic power agreement for a 250 MW AI campus. ^[4]
Balance‑sheet & listing risk: On Sept. 5, NUAI said it received a Nasdaq Staff Determination letter for not maintaining a $50M market value of listed securities; the company said it would request a hearing, which stays further action. ^[5]
Sector backdrop (Sept. 25): Data‑center build‑outs and resource constraints dominated headlines—CloudHQ unveiled a $4.8B Mexico program with waterless cooling, and Texas outlets warned of emerging water strain from AI campuses. ^[6]

What happened to NUAI on Sept. 25?

Shares ripped ~50% into the close after fresh coverage amplified a Sept. 24 company release: Phase One engineering is done for TCDC, the JV aiming to develop a Permian Basin AI data‑center complex with behind‑the‑meter power “islands,” compliance with Texas SB6, and scalable capacity to 1 GW. Management says the milestone “validates the constructability” of the site and its power‑delivery path beginning in early 2027. ^[7]

CEO E. Will Gray II put it bluntly: “We are de‑risking one of the most ambitious AI data center site developments in the United States.” (statement carried in coverage). ^[8]

The move came as retail‑trader dashboards highlighted NUAI among top percentage gainers during Thursday’s session. ^[9]

By the numbers: NUAI finished $1.38 (+49.84%) on 76.6M shares Thursday; pre‑market quotes Friday (5:30 a.m. ET) hovered near $1.86. For context, TradingView shows an all‑time low near $0.32 on Sept. 9, 2025 and an ATH around $12.29 in Dec. 2024—reminding investors how volatile this micro‑cap has been. ^[10]

The project and the road map

The site:Permian Basin (West Texas / SE New Mexico), with earlier filings describing a 438‑acre footprint capable of expansion. TCDC is the 50/50 JV with Sharon AI. ^[11]
Power strategy: Previously announced steps include a strategic power agreement tied to a 250 MW campus and an LOI with Mawgan Capital for proprietary Digital Zero Power™ to support Ector County. These are non‑binding LOIs/MOUs until converted into definitive contracts. ^[12]
Network: A 1,600‑mile Texas fiber MOU with GlobeLink aims at high‑capacity routes across the state—important if the campus is to host GPU‑dense AI workloads. ^[13]
Timeline: After Phase One, the JV says it will file a large‑load interconnection application; management’s current guide points to initial power from early 2027 (forward‑looking). ^[14]

Sept. 25–26: What else changed around NUAI’s world?

Sector spending is accelerating:CloudHQ committed $4.8B to build six data centers in Querétaro, Mexico, touting waterless cooling—evidence that hyperscale and AI tenants are expanding beyond the U.S. Southwest. ^[15]
Resource constraints are front‑page news: The Texas Tribune warned planners still don’t know how much water AI data centers will consume; researchers estimate existing Texas data centers could use ~25B gallons this year, with sharp growth by 2030. “It may not feel like [a lot] at the state level,” said Margaret Cook of the Houston Advanced Research Center, “but if massive data centers locate in small communities, [they] may not be able to handle big jumps in water demand.” ^[16]

Why that matters for NUAI: The TCDC plan leans on behind‑the‑meter power and private infrastructure. If NUAI can insulate tenants from grid bottlenecks and water disputes, it could increase the site’s appeal; if not, permitting, resources, and timelines could become headwinds.

How NUAI compares with similar “energy‑to‑AI infrastructure” stories

Applied Digital (APLD): A favored AI‑data‑center proxy this year, APLD’s run‑up has some analysts urging caution: “priced for perfection” as it waits to bring new capacity online amid a broader “gigawatts war.” That framing captures how competitive the land‑power‑compute scramble has become. ^[17]

Core Scientific (CORZ) / CoreWeave: Sector scale is consolidating. CoreWeave agreed in July to buy Core Scientific in an all‑stock ~$9B deal to lock down ~1.3 GW of power footprints for AI—illustrating how power access is the premium asset in AI infrastructure. ^[18]

Iris Energy (IREN): A miner‑turned‑AI operator expanding liquid‑cooled capacity in Texas and adding Nvidia GPUs—again underscoring the arms race to bring HPC‑ready megawatts online in 2025–26. ^[19]

Takeaway: NUAI is micro‑cap (~tens of millions in market cap) attempting to play in a space where multi‑billion‑dollar decisions (and nation‑state scale initiatives like OpenAI‑Oracle‑SoftBank’s “Stargate”) set the pace. As Sam Altman put it this week, “AI can only fulfill its promise if we build the compute to power it.” That sentiment drives the entire sector’s capital cycle—and sets a high execution bar for smaller entrants. ^[20]

Risks that remain front and center

Listing compliance: On Sept. 5, NUAI disclosed a Nasdaq Staff Determination for MVLS non‑compliance and said it will request a hearing; such proceedings can be lengthy and uncertain. ^[21]
Financing & counterparty risk: Recent updates cited equity purchase activity and non‑binding fiber/power MOUs/LOIs; converting announcements into funded, definitive agreements is the near‑term hurdle for any micro‑cap builder. (Background details summarised in Investing.com’s roundup and Business Wire.) ^[22]
Permitting, water, and grid constraints: Texas‑wide concerns on water usage and power delivery are escalating, which could affect permitting timelines and design choices (e.g., waterless or closed‑loop cooling). ^[23]
Volatility: From an ATH ~ $12.29 (Dec. 2024) to an ATL ~ $0.32 (Sept. 9) and back to $1+, NUAI’s tape has behaved like a trading vehicle. Position sizing and risk controls matter. ^[24]

News log you can cite (Sept. 25–26)

Sept. 25 (Thu)
• Stock move: NUAI closes $1.38 (+49.84%); 76.6M shares. ^[25]
• Coverage:Proactive Investors (sponsored): Phase One engineering complete; path to 2027 initial power; 1 GW end‑state. Last updated 12:25 p.m. EDT. ^[26]
• Market context: Benzinga’s top gainers page shows NUAI among Thursday standouts. ^[27]
• Sector headlines:CloudHQ unveils $4.8B Mexico data‑center program with waterless cooling; Texas Tribune flags state‑level water planning gaps for AI data centers. ^[28]
Sept. 26 (Fri)
• Tape (early):Pre‑market ~ $1.86 around 5:30 a.m. ET. No new company press release at the time of writing; last official release was Sept. 24 (Phase One). ^[29]

Bottom line

Thursday’s rip in NUAI looks like a headline + liquidity reaction to tangible (but early‑stage) progress on a 1 GW AI campus plan. The project’s logic—power first, fiber second, GPUs last—aligns with what’s moving the sector. But the bar for micro‑caps is high: convert MOUs/LOIs into funded contracts, clear compliance issues, and thread the needle on power/water constraints that are now national stories.

For readers benchmarking NUAI against larger peers: the direction of travel is the same (secure cheap, reliable megawatts and low‑latency networks), but the balance sheet, scale, and counterparties are leagues apart. As one Seeking Alpha note framed it for a bigger player: the “gigawatts war” is real—and “priced for perfection” in places. Micro‑caps like NUAI can participate, but execution risk—not hype—will determine whether Thursday’s spike transitions into durable value. ^[30]

Sources & further reading

NUAI price & volume (Sept. 25 close; Sept. 26 pre‑market) — StockAnalysis historical & pre‑market data. ^[31]
Phase One engineering completion (Sept. 24 release) — Business Wire; summary coverage on Investing.com. ^[32]
Proactive (Sept. 25) — Sponsored interview/article on Phase One and 2027 power path. ^[33]
Fiber MOU (Sept. 17) — Business Wire. ^[34]
Power LOI for Ector County (Sept. 10) — Business Wire. ^[35]
Strategic 250 MW power agreement (Sept. 2) — Business Wire. ^[36]
Nasdaq Staff Determination letter (Sept. 5) — Business Wire. ^[37]
Texas water‑use challenges (Sept. 25) — Texas Tribune. ^[38]
CloudHQ $4.8B Mexico build (Sept. 25) — Reuters. ^[39]
Sector scale context — Reuters on OpenAI‑Oracle‑SoftBank “Stargate”; CoreWeave/Core Scientific transaction details (investor and media reports). ^[40]

Editor’s note: Proactive Investors labeled its Sept. 25 NUAI coverage as content for a paid client; readers should treat it accordingly alongside primary releases and independent reporting. ^[41]

If you’d like, I can tailor a shorter Google Discover version of this piece with just the headline, key facts, and two charts of price & volume—without images.

🚨 AI Rally Isn’t Done: 🔼 2 Cheap Stocks With Massive Upside

Watch this video on YouTube.

References

NUAI Rockets Nearly 50% in a Day After AI Data‑Center Milestone—What Changed on Sept. 25–26 and What Could Break Next