The massive Microsoft deal, dubbed Project Kilby, positions Chevron as the booming AI leader of Big Oil. Chevron brings the scale, project management, land, natural gas resources, and more. Big Oil evolutionWhile Chevron has worked with Microsoft on cloud computing services for a decade, when the nascent AI boom began, Chevron was in on the discussions but left out in the dark on the actual deals. After ExxonMobil, Chevron is the second-largest oil and gas producer in West Texas’ Permian Basin—the epicenter of U.S. energy extraction. And Chevron is cognizant of the negative environmental implications of the AI boom and the surge of new gas-fired power plants.