Worries about the growing backlash over artificial intelligence data centers and its effect on the companies that are pouring an estimated $10 trillion to build them out over the next several years weren't rattling shares of gas pipeline and power generation company Williams Tuesday.
Shares of the Oklahoma company, which has a $1.6 billion deal to build two natural gas power plants with a combined 400 megawatt power output for Meta, rose more than 4% Tuesday after its released solid earnings for the quarter ending in September. The stock had pared some of those gains by midday, trading up 3% at $73.16.
While Williams doesn't specifically break out the share of revenue that comes from its data center business, its overall revenue for the quarter came in at $3.22 billion, handily beating analyst estimates for $2.99 billion. Earnings of 54 cents a share were in-line with expectations of analysts polled by FactSet.
The company didn't provide full-year guidance for those metrics. However, Williams said it is expecting adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of $8.3 billion to $8.5 billion, and growth capital spending between $7.3 billion and $7.9 billion.
In the earnings call, CEO Chad Zamarin credited progress on its Meta deal, which it calls Socrates, for its guidance, which it last updated in its second-quarter earnings report. "Our strong financial performance and execution on the Socrates project gives us confidence in updating the full year outlook," he said.
Part of why Williams may be buffered from a potential AI data center bust is that its core business remains its natural gas pipelines, which handle around one-third of all the natural gas in the U.S. by transporting it from production hubs to the places where it actually gets used for electricity generation, space heating, cooking, and transportation.
That has powered its impressive revenue growth of around 10% annually in recent years. Investors have taken notice as well, pushing shares up 22% in 2026 and nearly 30% over the past 12 months. For now, anyway, the AI halo isn't hurting, either.
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