Episode summary
Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend - February 13th, 2026 | Bloomberg Businessweek
Bloomberg Businessweek Daily
· · Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec
Summary
The episode centered on three themes: surging power demand, critical minerals, and the changing economics of consumer businesses. The host framed the week around a stronger-than-expected U.S. jobs report, higher Treasury yields, and investor unease over AI-driven sector rotation and shifting global alliances, then moved into how data centers and electrification are reshaping industrial demand.
Generac’s CEO argued that weak fourth-quarter residential sales were mainly weather-driven, with outage hours far below normal, but said the bigger story was a “generational opportunity” in data centers. He said the company has started shipping into the market, is ramping this year, and can now serve more than $1 billion of global capacity for data-center backup power after a recent plant acquisition. He also said labor shortages remain the biggest challenge.
The show then shifted to geothermal, where Sage Geos Systems’ CEO made the case that hot dry rock could expand geothermal’s addressable resource far beyond conventional geothermal. She said the company has a term sheet with Meta for a virtual power purchase agreement, argued the technology can lower water use and seismic risk, and estimated geothermal can reach 6 to 7 cents per kilowatt hour at scale.
Later, United States Antimony and Americas Gold and Silver described a joint venture to build a U.S. antimony processing plant in Idaho, saying it could start within 90 days and finish in about a year. The host ended with Angie, whose CEO said the company is intentionally sacrificing network traffic to improve customer experience and expects revenue growth later in 2026 as homeowner behavior normalizes.
Key takeaways
- Generac’s CEO said weak Q4 residential results were driven by 90% lower outage hours in the back half of 2025, not a broad collapse in demand.
- Generac sees a "generational opportunity" in data-center backup power and says it has doubled capacity for that market to over $1 billion.
- Sage Geos Systems’ CEO said next-generation geothermal could expand usable geothermal resource from about 2% to 50% or 60% of global potential.
- Sage said its Meta deal is a virtual PPA and that geothermal can scale to 6 to 7 cents per kilowatt hour.
- United States Antimony and Americas Gold and Silver said their Idaho antimony plant could be built and running in about a year, helping reduce U.S. reliance on foreign supply.
- Angie’s CEO said the company cut network traffic on purpose, expects revenue growth in 2026, and is seeing homeowner behavior shift only modestly.
Notable quotes
“our entry into the data center market. We started shipping products, our first products in fourth quarter and we're ramping”
“this is going to be for us it's a generational opportunity”
“We're tapping into hot, dry rock. This is what that next generation geothermal is”
“instead of the 2%, you're talking about 50 or 60% of the geothermal around the world”
“We should start within 90 days and be done in a year”
How the episode opens
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio, news. — This is Bloomberg Business Week Daily, reporting from the magazine that helps global leaders stay ahead with insight on the people, companies, and trends shaping today's complex economy. Plus, global business, finance, and tech news as it happens. The Bloomberg Business Week Daily podcast with Carol Masser and Tim Stenc on Bloomberg Radio.
Hi everyone, welcome to the Bloomberg Business Week weekend podcast. It was a week defined by crosscurrens that included a closely watched US jobs report that came not on a Friday but on a Wednesday and it did come in stronger than expected and it sent US Treasury yields higher. We also had the AI scare trade rotating through and taking down sectors throughout the week.
Also always in the backdrop, global alliances evolving and causing some unease for investors. You can check out all of this on the Bloomberg and at bloomberg.com. As for us, this week we focus on the demand for power and critical minerals.
Yes, because of the AI data center boom and also as the US looks to shore up its stockpiles on everything. On that, two mining leaders partner up. We'll hear from the CEOs of United States Antimony Corporation and America's Gold and Silver Corporation.
And on that surge in energy demand for AI and more, might geothermal be part of the solution? More on the race to unlock reliable carbon-f free power from beneath our feet with the CEO of Sage Geos Systems.
We're tapping into hot, dry rock. This is what that next generation geothermal is. So, it's rock that has the heat, but it doesn't have that large body of water. And what that allows you to do is increase the geology that you can find that heat.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- business news
- finance
- technology
- politics
- economics
Watch the episode
Watch “Bloomberg Businessweek Weekend - February 13th, 2026 | Bloomberg Businessweek” on YouTube
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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