NextEra Energy agreed to acquire Dominion Energy in an all-stock transaction valued at roughly $67 billion, forming the world's largest regulated electric utility by market capitalization as power companies race to meet soaring electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence data centers.
The deal marks one of the largest transactions in U.S. utility industry history and highlights the accelerating consolidation wave across the power sector, where utilities are competing to capitalize on explosive growth in electricity consumption from AI infrastructure and hyperscale data centers.
Under the agreement, NextEra will exchange 0.8138 shares of its stock for each Dominion share, valuing Dominion at approximately $76 per share, representing a premium of about 23% over its previous closing price. Dominion shareholders will also receive a one-time cash payment of $360 million once the transaction closes.
Following the announcement, Dominion shares surged more than 15% in premarket trading, while NextEra stock fell around 2% as investors weighed the massive scale of the acquisition and its financing implications.
The merger would create an energy giant spanning Florida, Virginia, and the Carolinas, giving NextEra deeper exposure to some of the fastest-growing electricity markets in the United States. Dominion's crown jewel is its dominant position in Northern Virginia's "Data Center Alley," the world's largest concentration of data centers and one of the most power-hungry regions globally.
Dominion currently has nearly 51 gigawatts of contracted data-center capacity and serves major technology companies including Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, Equinix, CoreWeave, and CyrusOne.
The acquisition significantly strengthens NextEra's ambitions to dominate the rapidly expanding AI-power ecosystem. The company has increasingly shifted toward an "all-of-the-above" energy strategy that combines renewable energy, natural gas, nuclear power, battery storage, and transmission infrastructure to meet surging electricity demand from AI data centers.
Last year, NextEra partnered with Alphabet's Google Cloud to develop large-scale data center campuses paired with dedicated power generation facilities across the U.S. The company also signed an agreement to restart a nuclear reactor in Iowa to support growing AI-related electricity demand.
The broader utility industry is undergoing a historic transformation as electricity demand rebounds for the first time in decades. Massive AI data centers can consume as much electricity as thousands of retail stores operating continuously around the clock, forcing utilities to rapidly expand generation capacity and transmission infrastructure.
The deal also follows several major utility-sector acquisitions tied to the AI electricity boom, including Constellation Energy's $16 billion acquisition of Calpine, Blackstone's $11.5 billion deal for TXNM Energy, and AES Corp's agreement to be acquired by a consortium led by Global Infrastructure Partners and Sweden-based EQT AB.
Despite the strategic appeal, the transaction is expected to face heavy regulatory scrutiny. Consumer advocates, lawmakers, and regulators are likely to closely examine concerns over market concentration, electricity affordability, and grid reliability as power prices continue rising nationwide.
According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, electricity prices have climbed roughly 40% over the past five years, with especially sharp increases in data-center-heavy regions such as Virginia, Maryland, and Pennsylvania.
The transaction is expected to close within 12 to 18 months, pending approval from shareholders and multiple regulators, including the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
Upon completion, NextEra CEO John Ketchum will lead the combined company.