US power company NextEra Energy said Monday it was acquiring Dominion Energy in a deal that would create the world’s largest utility amid soaring AI-driven energy demand.
In addition to providing scale — Dominion powers the world’s largest data center market, and the combined entity would be the world leader in renewables and battery storage — the deal will likely be pitched to US regulators as providing savings for consumers, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist wrote; ballooning utility costs have spurred public backlash against data centers.
While the AI boom has prompted a rash of blockbuster energy acquisitions, this deal could face more scrutiny given its potential to become an “impossible to regulate” mega-entity, an energy nonprofit executive told The New York Times.