NextEra Energy announced an all-stock deal valued at $67 billion to acquire Dominion Energy, creating the world's largest regulated electric utility by market capitalization. It is the largest energy acquisition this century, surpassing even the 1998 Exxon-Mobil merger in scale.
The strategic rationale is straightforward: AI-driven power demand. Dominion is the utility that powers northern Virginia, the world's largest data center market. The combined company will serve approximately 10 million utility customer accounts across Florida, Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
The two companies' combined construction backlog of 130 gigawatts exceeds their existing power generation capacity, reflecting the massive infrastructure buildout underway to support AI workloads.
Market reaction was mixed — NextEra's stock fell nearly 5% on concerns about overpaying, while Dominion's rose 9%. The deal underscores a broader trend: the AI boom is reshaping not just the tech industry but the entire energy sector, as utilities race to build capacity for data centers consuming unprecedented amounts of power.