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New ERA Energy & Digital, Inc.

NYSE:NUAI
US$5.53Close 7 Oct 2026 · delayed

Past year: ▼ 2%(2.93 – 6.86 USD)

Market cap
A$834m
Shares on issue
107m
In-ground value
—
Risked multiple
0.00×
Story beats
20 since 2024
Last event
30 July 2026

History

A small helium-focused SPAC merger in 2024 pivoted to AI data centers in Texas, funded first by dilutive financing and then a Macquarie loan facility of up to $290M, ending with a restatement.

2024: A small SPAC merger

The story began as a blank-cheque deal. Roth CH Acquisition V, a shell company with roughly $17.5 million left in trust after earlier redemptions, planned to merge with New Era Helium, owner of the Pecos Slope gas field in New Mexico, which intended to build its own processing plant there. A Nasdaq rule gave the shell 36 months from listing to finish a deal, and a filing in October warned that going beyond 30 November 2024 would bring suspension and delisting. The merger closed in early December 2024, and the company traded on Nasdaq as NEHC under CEO E. Will Gray II. The shell had 4.9 million shares outstanding at the record date. New Era Helium's holders received 8.9 million shares, and 2.4 million more shares were issued to holders of bridge debentures when they converted.

As the merger closed, the company signed a $75 million equity purchase facility and $10 million of senior secured convertible notes with an institutional investor. The notes carried a 7% original issue discount and were secured on all company assets.

2025: Pivot, pressure and a stalled plant

Six weeks after listing, the company formed a 50/50 joint venture, Texas Critical Data Centers (TCDC), with Sharon AI to build a 250MW gas-fired data center in the Permian Basin. It also drew a second $3 million note under its financing facility. In July 2025 the venture closed its first land purchase, 235 acres in Ector County, Texas.

The helium business went the other way. Matheson Tri-Gas ended its agreement to buy half the plant's output in July 2025 after the plant missed its 1 July start-up deadline. In October, AirLife Gases also terminated its supply contract, forcing a $2.4 million payment. The Pecos Slope plant was not coming online as planned.

Nasdaq warnings piled up. In March the company's market value was found below the $50 million minimum, and in May two more notices came for publicly held shares below $15 million and a bid price under $1.00. The company missed the September deadline and faced delisting unless it won a hearing before Nasdaq's panel. By then it had been renamed New Era Energy & Digital (NUAI). The record does not show how the panel process ended.

In October the company terminated the equity facility, which had been expanded to $1 billion two months earlier, saying it was "sufficiently capitalized". A week later it took a $4 million bridge loan at 18% interest from shareholder Joel Solis, secured on the data-center land. In November TCDC agreed to buy another 203 acres for about $5.1 million, making 438 contiguous acres.

2025-2026: Buying out Sharon AI

On 29 December 2025 the company agreed to buy Sharon AI's 50% of TCDC for $70 million: $10 million in cash, $10 million in stock and a $50 million convertible note. The buyout closed in January 2026, giving full ownership. The company also amended warrants held by its original financing lender, now named as ATW AI Infrastructure II LLC, to clear the way, and announced a co-development partnership with Primary Digital Infrastructure.

2026: Real financing, then a restatement

On 8 April 2026 TCDC signed a senior secured term loan facility of up to $290 million with Macquarie Equipment Capital, of which only $20 million is committed. On 10 April the company closed the underwritten public offering the facility required, issued extra shares to Sharon AI and Zachary Zhou, and moved to prepay the Sharon AI note early. Shares outstanding reached 93.5 million, about ten times the count after the 2024 merger.

On 30 July 2026 the company disclosed a restatement of its first-quarter 2026 results. About $1.4 million of deal costs had been wrongly expensed instead of deferred, and the $23.5 million grant-date fair value of executive performance stock units was understated by an amount not yet quantified. A material weakness in internal controls was acknowledged, and the accounting for the TCDC acquisition was also under review. As of that date, the company was a data-center developer with full ownership of TCDC, while its original helium business had stalled.

Written from the 20 story beats below (2024 to 30 July 2026), which come from the company's own announcements and filings.

Beat by beat

The events that changed the company's story, in plain English, each written against everything known about the company at the time. The dot shows whether it was good, bad or neutral for shareholders.

shares on issue market cap (log scale)

202661.4m shares · US$392m market cap

  1. 30 July

    The company said its Q1 2026 financials should no longer be relied upon, because about $1.4M of deal-related fees were expensed rather than deferred. It also said the $23.5M grant-date fair value of executive performance stock units was understated by an amount not yet quantified, and it is still reviewing the TCDC acquisition accounting.

    financial restatement

    61.4m shUS$392m
  2. 10 Apr

    Closed the underwritten public offering required to unlock the Macquarie facility, issued true-up shares to Sharon AI and Zachary Zhou, and moved to prepay the Sharon AI convertible note early -- share count has ballooned to 93.5M shares outstanding, roughly ten times the count right after the 2024 merger.

    capital raising announcement

    61.4m shUS$249m
  3. 8 Apr

    Texas Critical Data Centers signed a Term Loan Agreement with Macquarie Equipment Capital for up to $290M, of which only $20M is committed and the rest is at the lender's discretion. The deal requires a $30M+ equity offering within 60 days and gives Macquarie warrants and shares.

    capital raising announcement

    61.4m shUS$249m
  4. 20 Jan

    Closed the buyout of Sharon AI's stake in Texas Critical Data Centers, giving the company full ownership; separately amended warrant terms with its original EPFA-era lender (now named as ATW AI Infrastructure II LLC) to clear the way for the deal, and announced a new co-development partnership with Primary Digital Infrastructure.

    asset acquisition disposition

    61.3m shUS$179m

202553.4m shares · US$272m market cap

  1. 29 Dec

    Agreed to buy out Sharon AI's entire 50% stake in the Texas Critical Data Centers joint venture for $70M ($10M cash, $10M stock, $50M convertible note), taking full ownership of the AI data-center project -- while the venture also closed its previously announced purchase of the extra 203 acres.

    asset acquisition disposition

    53.4m shUS$272m
  2. 25 Nov

    Texas Critical Data Centers agreed to buy another 203 acres in Ector County for about $5.1M, expanding the joint venture's Permian Basin data-center site to 438 contiguous acres.

    material agreement

    53.4m shUS$303m
  3. 28 Oct

    Took a $4M short-term bridge loan (18% interest, secured by the Texas data-center land) from insider shareholder Joel Solis just a week after claiming to be well-capitalized, while AirLife Gases terminated its liquid-helium supply contract -- like Matheson in July -- forcing a $2.4M payment and confirming the original Pecos Slope helium plant is not coming online as planned.

    material agreement termination

    53.0m shUS$97.4m
  4. 20 Oct

    Terminated the EPFA facility entirely -- which had been expanded to $1 billion in commitment size just two months earlier -- saying the company is now "sufficiently capitalized" and does not expect to need it; no termination penalty applies, closing out the toxic financing thread that began at the December 2024 merger close.

    material agreement termination

    53.0m shUS$97.4m
  5. 5 Sept

    Nasdaq confirmed the company missed its September 2 deadline to fix the market-value deficiency and is now subject to delisting unless it wins a hearing before Nasdaq's panel; the company (by now renamed New Era Energy & Digital, Inc., trading as NUAI/NUAIW) says it may raise capital or pursue a PIPE to move down to the Nasdaq Capital Market instead.

    listing compliance notice

    26.0m shUS$12.9m
  6. 29 July

    The Texas Critical Data Centers joint venture with Sharon AI closed on its first land purchase -- 235 acres in Ector County, Texas -- for the planned AI/HPC data center campus, the first concrete capital commitment behind the January pivot into AI infrastructure.

    material agreement

    25.5m shUS$12.5m
  7. 9 July

    Matheson Tri-Gas terminated its agreement to buy half the helium output from the company's Pecos Slope Plant, because the plant had missed its July 1, 2025 contractual start-up deadline -- the first sign the original helium-production business was stalling.

    material agreement termination

    25.5m shUS$12.5m
  8. 16 May

    Two more Nasdaq deficiency notices arrived the same day: the market value of publicly held shares fell below $15M and the stock's closing bid price stayed under $1.00 -- both carrying 180-day cure periods to November 12, 2025, compounding the earlier market-value warning.

    listing compliance notice

    14.0m shUS$12.6m
  9. 7 Mar

    Nasdaq warned that New Era Helium's total market value had stayed below the $50M minimum for 30 straight days, starting a 180-day clock (to September 2, 2025) to regain compliance or face a move to the Nasdaq Capital Market.

    listing compliance notice

    13.0m shUS$27.8m
  10. 21 Jan

    Six weeks after going public, New Era Helium began pivoting into AI infrastructure: it formed a 50/50 joint venture, Texas Critical Data Centers LLC, with Sharon AI to build a 250MW gas-fired data center in the Permian Basin, while also drawing a second $3M note under its EPFA financing facility.

    capital raising announcement

    13.0m shUS$77.9m

202413.2m shares · US$151m market cap

  1. 12 Dec

    The merger closed on December 6, 2024, and NEH security holders received 8,916,625 shares of the combined company. 2,409,270 shares were issued to holders of NEH's bridge-financing debentures when they converted, and ROCL had 4,919,297 shares outstanding at the meeting record date.

    business combination

    13.2m shUS$151m
  2. 10 Dec

    The moment the merger closed, the company signed a $75M Equity Purchase Facility with an institutional investor plus $10M in senior secured convertible notes (7% original issue discount, secured by all company assets) -- a dilutive, toxic-style financing structure typical of a cash-strapped post-SPAC company.

    capital raising announcement

    13.2m shUS$151m
  3. 9 Dec

    The SPAC merger closed: Roth CH Acquisition V and New Era Helium Corp completed their business combination, and the surviving public company was renamed New Era Helium Inc., trading on Nasdaq as NEHC/NEHCW under CEO E. Will Gray II.

    business combination

    13.2m shUS$151m
  4. 1 Nov

    Amendment No. 5 disclosed that Roth CH V had filed a preliminary proxy on 25 October seeking up to six one-month extensions of its completion window, from 4 December 2024 out to 4 June 2025 -- a week after the previous amendment warned that going past the Nasdaq 36-month limit would trigger suspension and delisting. Audited accounts for the new Nevada holding company, incorporated on 24 June 2024, were added.

    business combination

    6.4m shUS$72.8m
  5. 23 Oct

    Amendment No. 4 added the hard stop. Nasdaq rule IM-5101-2 gives a blank-cheque company 36 months from its listing to complete a combination; the filing states that extending beyond 30 November 2024 would breach the rule and bring immediate suspension and delisting, after which the stock could be treated as a penny stock under Rule 419. The proposed charter also lifts authorised capital from 50 million shares of common stock to 70 million common plus 5 million preferred that the board may issue on terms it sets itself.

    business combination

    6.4m shUS$72.2m
  6. 28 June

    Roth CH Acquisition V, a blank-cheque company with roughly $17.5 million left in trust after earlier redemptions, registered the shares for its merger with New Era Helium, which holds the mature Pecos Slope gas field in New Mexico and intends to build its own processing plant there. New Era's owners take a fixed 9,000,000 shares, adjusted by a tenth of a share for every dollar its net debt lands above or below $37.3 million -- about 41.5% of the company, against 15.4% for the sponsor and only 7.3% for the blank-cheque company's remaining public shareholders, whose trust was worth about $11.06 a share.

    business combination

    6.4m shUS$70.3m