Chevron

Chevron earned 12.1 billion dollars in the quarter ended June 2026, or 6.11 dollars per share, and generated a 21 percent return on the capital it employs. Production hit a record in the United States and rose 20 percent worldwide, while its American refineries ran at 97 percent of capacity.

Chevron signed a 20 year agreement to supply power to a Microsoft data center in West Texas. Artificial intelligence needs an enormous and growing amount of electricity, and this puts an oil major directly into that demand. A 20 year contract is the kind of predictable income energy companies rarely have.

Revenue actually slipped about 4.6 percent over the past year even while production hit records, because the price of crude, not the company, sets the outcome. Management can run the business superbly and still earn less, and that is the fundamental trade you accept when you own an energy producer.

The world is slowly shifting away from the fuel Chevron sells. That shift is far slower than headlines suggest and the company is adapting, but anyone holding this for many years is making a judgement about how quickly oil demand fades. The shares also trade near 20 times earnings, which is not an obvious bargain for a business whose revenue slipped over the past year.