NextEra Energy Near Deal for Rival Utility Dominion -- WSJ

Dow Jones05-16

By Lauren Thomas and Jennifer Hiller

NextEra Energy is in advanced talks to buy rival utility Dominion Energy in a deal that would be one of the largest of the year, according to people familiar with the matter.

The potential tie-up comes as the artificial-intelligence race is propelling significant electricity-demand growth for the first time in decades.

The details

The companies are discussing a mostly stock deal that could come as soon as Monday, the people said, assuming the talks don't fall apart.

Florida-based NextEra has a market value of nearly $200 billion, while Virginia-based Dominion has a market value of around $50 billion.

NextEra owns Florida Power & Light, the largest electric utility in the U.S., and is also a large developer of power generation and transmission.

Financial Times earlier reported on the deal talks.

The context

New AI data centers can consume the same amount of electricity as an entire city, with high demand around the clock. Beyond AI, many utilities are trying to keep up with growth in manufacturing, electric vehicles and residential markets, too.

Utilities around the country are planning to spend tens of billions of dollars to build new sources of power generation and high-voltage transmission lines to carry electricity from power plants over long distances.

NextEra said in December it was teaming up with Alphabet's Google Cloud to build new, large data center campuses paired with power generation across the U.S. NextEra and Google in October announced a deal to restart a NextEra nuclear reactor in Iowa.

Dominion in recent years saw a sharp uptick in electricity demand driven by a build-out of data centers in northern Virginia. The area, long home to a large concentration of such facilities, is known as "data center alley." Dominion expects peak demand on its system to double by the end of the 2030s.

Write to Lauren Thomas at lauren.thomas@wsj.com and Jennifer Hiller at jennifer.hiller@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 16, 2026 11:26 ET (15:26 GMT)

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NextEra Energy Near Deal for Rival Utility Dominion -- WSJ

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