Controlled Thermal Resources has signed a definitive business combination agreement with Plum Acquisition Corp. IV that would take the company public at a pro forma enterprise value of about $4.7 billion. The deal is designed to advance CTR’s Hell’s Kitchen project in California’s Imperial Valley, where the company plans a phased buildout of up to 650 MW of geothermal baseload power and 100,000 metric tons per year of lithium carbonate at full scale. Stage 1 is expected to include 50 MW of power capacity and up to 25,000 metric tons per year of lithium carbonate production.

The market signal is clear: buyers are paying for integrated, de-risked platforms that can deliver both reliable power and strategic minerals. That fits broader U.S. M&A behavior, where investors have shifted toward late-stage, operational, and execution-ready assets, while platform-scale deals increasingly favor diversified power businesses tied to rising data-center demand.  

CTR is positioning Hell’s Kitchen as exactly that kind of platform. The company says it has raised more than $285 million to date, completed a field development plan with Baker Hughes, demonstrated lithium extraction on live geothermal brine, and secured a Conditional Use Permit for Stage 1 construction. It has also invested $185 million in long-lead equipment and obtained FAST-41 status to support federal permitting.

Commercially, this matters because the deal is not just about geothermal. It links 24/7 clean power for AI and hyperscale infrastructure with domestic lithium supply, giving public-market investors exposure to two constrained U.S. infrastructure themes in one asset. Similar capital discipline is visible across broader U.S. power M&A, where buyers are prioritizing scale, readiness, and supply-chain resilience over fragmented early-stage pipelines.

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