The Chip Industry, Climate Week NYC, and Hurricane Helene

The last several weeks have been very busy ones for us, and we apologize for being out of touch, but given the time since our last communication, we have several interesting things to share.

Firstly, in early September, Jeff was interviewed about the growing chip industry and the energy demands needed to keep pace with it. As we’ve spoken about previously, as the A.I. sector expands, we believe the need for sustainable infrastructure, water, and climate adaptation strategies will also continue to grow.

As A.I. data centers require increased power to run as well as increased water to cool, we feel that water and grid infrastructure are great potential defensive strategies to hedge against the volatile A.I. trade. And as sustainable infrastructure and utilities are somewhat interest rate sensitive, with interest rates coming down, we also feel it also bodes well for each of these sectors.

Secondly, as many of you know, Climate Week NYC took place in New York City last week, and Jeff spoke at Morningstar’s NYC Headquarters at 4 World Trade Center at the Shifting Trillions Event on The Addition Economy, and also led a panel at our yearly Climate and Capital Conference at the NYSE, which we again co-hosted with ICE, Accenture, and fintech.tv, titled “The Role of Private Markets and Philanthropy in Addressing Climate Risk.”

This year’s Climate and Capital Conference focused largely on carbon accounting, measurement, and pricing, as well as how we can further drive catalytic capital into the impact and climate space via public policy, private-public partnerships, and philanthropy. We look forward to sharing a complimentary replay of the conference with all of you soon.

Lastly, Hurricane Helene is estimated by some to leave behind between $95 billion and $110 billion in damage and economic loss.  The storm wreaked havoc in places as far inland as Tennessee and North Carolina, affecting several populations that have not previously considered a strong need for flood insurance.

As Jeff notes, “insurance underpins our entire economic model.  The only way to build most things in this country is if insurance underlies the investment.”  As the insurance industry increasingly finds itself unable to cope with the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, what will this mean for us as a society?

This is one of several reasons why we believe climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation strategies to be so important during this time.