The renewable energy sector may have lost a few battles, but it’s winning the war—literally.

All eyes have been on the surging price of oil over the past few weeks as the Strait of Hormuz has remained effectively shuttered, and the global crude shortage has only underscored the need for alternatives like solar, wind, and other renewable energy sources.

Investors on Wall Street have clearly caught on: The iShares Global Clean Energy ETF, the largest clean energy ETF by assets under management in the world, has jumped 59.93% over the past year. The S&P 500, meanwhile, is up just 18.81% over the same time period.

Further abroad, the war has exposed Europe’s need for alternative energy sources, and could fuel a rally for European clean energy stocks.

But that’s not all: At the same time that rising oil prices have rattled markets recently, electricity demand was already surging—largely driven by, you guessed it, AI data centers.

In fact, data centers require so much energy that their development has slowed because the power grid has already been stretched to its limits, according to new research from energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie. That means one thing: The tech industry needs a plethora of new energy sources, stat. With oil still over $100 per barrel, clean energy seems poised to fill that need.

A surprisingly sunny outlook

If you’ve been paying attention over the past few years, the recent gains in green energy stocks might surprise you. After all, the Trump administration has made its ire for renewable energy and anything vaguely climate-conscious abundantly clear—slashing subsidies and vowing to “drill, baby, drill.”

But projections show that alternative energy usage is only going to keep rising. Last week, analysts at Bloomberg projected that global solar installations will grow this year, reversing their previous projection that the rate would plateau. And according to the International Energy Agency, worldwide investment in clean energy rose to a record $780 billion last year, outpacing investment in oil and gas infrastructure.

Maybe it’s time to recycle your old expectations.—LB

🟢 What’s up

• Warner Bros. Discovery gained 1.36% after its films secured 11 Oscars at the 98th Academy Awards over the weekend.
• AeroVironment rallied 2.32% after its laser drone-defense technology was featured on 60 Minutes.
• Alibaba rose 1.11% thanks to plans to consolidate its Qwen model research and major AI products under CEO Eddie Wu.
• JBS, the largest meatpacker in the world, climbed 1.43% despite a strike at its Colorado beef-processing plant over wage disputes.
• Structure Therapeutics surged 5.4% on promising Phase 2 data for its oral GLP-1 obesity drug.
• Peloton climbed 4.31% after the launch of new commercial bikes and treadmills aimed at gyms.
• Dollar Tree rose 6.42% as its pricing overhaul began showing results despite soft guidance.
• Micron rallied 3.68% on plans to build a second chip-manufacturing facility in Taiwan.
• National Storage Affiliates soared 30.1% on news it will be acquired by Public Storage in a $10.5 billion all-stock deal.
• Strategy rose 5.62%, Coinbase popped 3.98%, and Circle jumped 9.06% as bitcoin hit its highest level in over a month.

What’s down

• CF Industries fell 5.59%, Mosaic slid 5.6%, and Nutrien dropped 6.11% after the US permitted Iranian oil tankers to travel through the Strait of Hormuz, easing supply concerns that had supported fertilizer prices.
• OneMain Holdings slipped 5.38% after a lawsuit accused its OneMain Financial unit of charging customers hidden fees and excessive interest.

Last Thursday, the New York Times broke the news that Meta Platforms’ new AI model, Avocado, wasn’t living up to its high expectations. Despite spending billions of dollars on development and a who’s who of experts, Mark Zuckerberg’s AI aspirations were falling short, and his vaunted model was falling behind schedule. Meta’s stock dropped nearly 4% on Friday, and jokes abounded across the internet that Avocado wasn’t fully ripened yet.

Seems like Zuck took that personally.

Meta changed the narrative today with two big moves. Over the weekend, Reuters reported that the social media giant plans to lay off upwards of 20% of its labor force in the coming months. It’s reportedly an effort to reduce costs and refocus the savings on AI, which shareholders like the sound of: The stock popped at the open today, and ended the trading session up 2.33%.

Then, Meta announced it has inked a five-year, $27 billion deal with cloud computing provider Nebius Group, which will give Meta dedicated artificial-intelligence capacity on its new Nvidia Vera Rubin chips. It’s a great deal for Nebius, which has been on a hot streak lately: The Dutch company just received a $2 billion investment from Nvidia last week. Shares rose 14.96% today.

Despite slow progress on Avocado, it’s clear that Zuckerberg still has high hopes for Meta’s AI-focused future. Wall Street is bullish as well: Although the stock has declined 4.94% in 2026, 39 of the 44 analysts who cover the company still rate it a “buy,” and nobody says it’s a “sell.”—MR

Attention finance bros! If you’re tired of the 2am Excel models and want a change of pace, look no further: xAI is hiring.

Elon Musk’s AI startup is recruiting market experts, from investment bankers to portfolio managers to crypto analysts, as it looks to strengthen the financial intelligence behind its AI chatbot, Grok. While Grok will be trained on a plethora of financial topics, a key focus is on credit markets, given growing concerns about corporate leverage and risks in the private credit space.

What does this mean for xAI?

The hiring push comes as xAI works to reposition itself following several recent challenges, including global scrutiny earlier this year after Grok generated nonconsensual sexualized images.

Improving Grok’s financial capabilities could strengthen xAI’s core product, diversify revenue streams, and allow it to better compete in the increasingly crowded AI landscape. But while the idea makes sense, xAI may be late to the party:

• OpenAI: In October, the company hired 100 former bankers to help train ChatGPT on financial tasks like modeling IPOs and restructurings. The effort is already translating into products: Just this month, the company launched ChatGPT for Excel and added integrations with major financial data providers, allowing users to work directly with market data inside the platform.
• Anthropic: The firm launched Claude AI tools for financial services in July and has continued expanding them as adoption grows. Last month it released Claude 4.6, a model designed to carry out financial research and analysis.

What does this mean for Wall Street?

Today’s development is somewhat paradoxical: bankers are helping train the very AI systems that could eventually replace them. To make matters worse, banks are also building internal AI tools in partnership with these same companies:

• Goldman Sachs: The firm is allocating $6 billion to technology spend this year, working with Anthropic to develop internal agents designed to automate tasks across the firm, particularly in areas like accounting and compliance.
• JPMorgan: With an annual $18 billion technology budget, the bank has already invested roughly $2 billion into AI initiatives. Its projects include tools such as ProxyIQ, its AI proxy advisor, as well as over 100 additional AI tools currently in development.
• Bank of America: The bank spent around $13 billion on technology in 2025 and plans to increase that spending by 10% this year. Its virtual assistant Erica has become a core tool, handling about 2 million customer interactions in a single day, while over 90% of employees use it internally.
• Morgan Stanley: The firm moved into the space early, through a partnership with OpenAI in 2024, and now 72% of the company's interns report using ChatGPT daily or several times per week. It's also built an internal AI toolkit for everything from data analysis to lead distributions.

AI is moving in on Wall Street's turf, and at this rate, the next analyst class might be just a line of code.—SY

• The next victim of the Strait of Hormuz’s closure could be generic prescription drugs.
• Traders are flocking to crypto exchange Hyperliquid, which offers 24/7 "perpetual futures” that track oil prices.
• Here’s what the pros are expecting from Nvidia’s huge GTC event this week.
• OpenAI is in talks to form a joint venture with a slew of private equity firms.
• The highly anticipated meeting between President Trump and China’s Xi Jinping may be delayed for logistical reasons.
• The Fed is meeting this week—here’s why the central bank is likely to keep rates steady.

Economic reports: We’ll get the first of several housing market reports due this week with a look at the home builder confidence index for March, as well as the pending home sales report for February.

Earnings announcements: Oklo, Lululemon, and Docusign are the highlights of the day

Everything else: Nvidia’s GTC event continues for its second day. But there’s plenty to watch outside of the business world, too: The World Baseball Classic championship game will feature the US and either Venezuela or Italy, depending on who wins tonight’s semifinal game. We’ve also got the first game of the men’s March Madness tournament. Oh, and don’t forget to wear green for St. Patrick’s Day.