<body><p>STORY: :: Amazon Web Service</p><p>Two powerhouse utility companies are merging as the AI boom fuels data center demand.</p><p>:: NextEra Energy</p><p>NextEra Energy on Monday said it will buy Dominion Energy in an all-stock transaction valued at nearly $67 billion.</p><p>:: Dominion Energy</p><p>The deal is one of the biggest in the U.S. power industry, and will create the world's largest regulated electric utility company by market value.</p><p>:: NextEra Energy</p><p>:: Amazon Web Service</p><p>The transaction gives NextEra greater reach into supplying electricity to Big Tech's burgeoning data centers, with Dominion's customers including Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and CoreWeave.</p><p>:: Archive</p><p>It also follows an agreement NextEra made last year with Google to reopen a nuclear power plant in Iowa.</p><p>The energy sector has seen a wave of consolidation recently as rapid data-center buildout lifts power demand for the first time in two decades, opening up a lucrative revenue stream and boosting profit prospects.</p><p>:: Archive</p><p>This year, AES Corp agreed to be acquired by a consortium led by Global Infrastructure Partners and Swedish private-equity firm EQT. That followed Constellation Energy's deal for Calpine and Blackstone's purchase of TXNM Energy last year.</p><p>Monday's announcement sent shares of NextEra lower by as much as five-and-a-half percent, while Dominion's stock rose as much as eleven-and-a-half percent to its highest level since November of 2022.</p></body>
