ProPetro CEO Concedes Data Center Market Is 'Show-Me-Still' — Two Big Deals Now Active
Executives say talks on several hundred megawatts are down to two active deals, with deployment at scale possible as early as late 2027.
ProPetro CEO Sam Sledge said on the company's Wednesday earnings call that investors want proof of its data center contracts, and that management will not ask anyone to take the pipeline on faith. ProPower President Travis Simmering said talks on several hundred megawatts have narrowed to two active deals, as the company reported $355 million in third-quarter revenue.
A show-me market
ProPetro, which provides hydraulic fracturing, wireline and cementing services and runs a power generation business called PROPWR, has been telling investors it is in advanced talks with data center customers. Sledge acknowledged the skepticism: "We recognize this has become a show-me-still." He said management's conviction in landing the agreements "has not changed."
His answer was a track record. Sledge pointed to a live data center site, which he said is largely built on 2.6-megawatt units, and said the company has not over-promised on contract timelines.
Simmering told a Barclays analyst that more than one opportunity exists, but two in the several-hundred-megawatt range are really active. The company cannot do everything in the pipeline, he said, so it narrowed its focus to the most executable deals.
Contract risk, not community pushback
A Piper Sandler analyst asked whether community pushback or moratoriums were stretching timelines. Simmering said it was not that, but "real contract risk exposure on both sides, liability and damages," given how large and long the installations are.
Sledge defended the pace: "A few weeks or a month on the front end to get the right long-term deal just makes sense to us." Simmering said larger installations of several hundred megawatts would carry terms of 10 years or more, and that paybacks on data center deals would sit toward the higher end of four to six years.
510 megawatts contracted, more to come
A recent agreement with Targa for about 230 megawatts lifted contracted capacity to about 510 megawatts, Sledge said. Simmering said any data center contract would come on top of that, and that deployment at scale could start as early as late 2027, with 2028 certain.
The company said it has secured about 2.6 gigawatts of power generation capacity, more than one gigawatt of it Caterpillar 10-megawatt units. ProPower generated about $8 million of adjusted EBITDA in the quarter, and the company expects 250 to 275 megawatts deployed by the end of 2026.
CFO Caleb Weatherl said cash was $729 million and total liquidity $934 million at September 30. Net income was $13 million, against a net loss of $8 million in the prior quarter, and adjusted EBITDA was $60 million.
The next proof point is whether either of the two active several-hundred-megawatt negotiations turns into a signed contract.
Sources
- ProPetro Reports Financial Results for the Third Quarter of 2026 – Company Announcement - FT.com — Financial Times
- ProPetro Holding (PUMP) Q3 Earnings and Revenues Surpass Estimates — Yahoo Finance
- ProPetro GAAP EPS of $0.09 beats by $0.10, revenue of $355M beats by $33.98M — seekingalpha.com
