Data Centers Briefings

When a regulated utility files a rate settlement, the most revealing line is rarely the headline rate base — it’s the signature page. TNMP, the Texas transmission-and-distribution subsidiary of TXNM Energy, filed a comprehensive settlement in its base-rate review before the Public Utility Commission of Texas on May 29, 2026, recovering a filed rate base of $2.8 billion as of June 30, 2025 and holding its authorized return on equity at 9.65% with a 45% equity ratio (TXNM/PNM release). The settlement also adds $20.5 million in rider recovery for Hurricane Beryl restoration costs over five years, separate from base rates, with interim rates relating back to May 22, 2026 ([TXNM/PNM release](http://o

Nearly $5 billion for a single solar-and-storage build in California is the kind of number that tells you where the power market is headed. In ESG Today’s weekly roundup, IPX Power (the Intersect spinoff) is reported to have secured ~$4.95–5.0bn to finance a large project, while Enbridge is lining up $1.2bn of solar and storage to supply Meta data centres. If you’re trying to handicap the next phase of data centre growth, today’s signal is simple: the grid may be slow, but capital is not.

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The standout datapoint is IPX Power’s reported ~$4.95–5.0bn financing package to build a large California solar-and-storage project. That’s an eye-catching sum even in a world that’s gotten used to nine-figure P

South Africa is explicitly pitching India on data centres, renewable energy technologies, and critical-minerals beneficiation—and it’s doing it inside a broader roadmap that’s already riding a big trade number. Bilateral trade has grown from $4bn in 2005 to nearly $20bn in 2024, and Deputy President Paul Mashatile is now trying to turn that momentum into concrete industrial linkages and joint manufacturing aimed at African markets. For data centre investors, the subtext is clear: Pretoria wants Indian capital and capability to land in projects that sit right at the power–compute–minerals intersection.

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South Africa–India Roadmap for Technology, Trade and Investment sets out a collaboration agenda that includes la

DigitalBridge’s move to buy ArcLight is the clearest signal yet that “AI infrastructure” is collapsing into a single trade: power plus digital, under one roof. In a deal valuing ArcLight at up to $1.05bn, DigitalBridge is explicitly trying to fuse power investing with data centres and connectivity—because the bottleneck isn’t racks, it’s electrons. Pair that with new US state scrutiny of AI data centres and fresh grid-rate manoeuvring in Texas, and the direction of travel is obvious: the next wave of winners will be the ones who can secure power, permits, and political permission at the same time.

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DigitalBridge to acquire ArcLight to scale power and AI in a transaction valuing ArcLight at up to $1.05bn ($650m base plus

Energinet just hit the brakes on new grid-connection agreements for “very large” power users — explicitly including data centres — and warned some projects could be waiting 5–10 years for full access. That’s not a planning hiccup; it’s a sign that in parts of Europe the constraint has shifted from “can you finance it?” to “can you physically get on the grid?” The interesting twist is how similar the underlying problem looks in the US: the load is showing up faster than the system can absorb it, and regulators are starting to write rules with data centres in mind.

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Energinet pauses new grid connections for very large consumers is the most concrete example in today’s stack of what “grid scarcity” looks like in practice

Stratos just filed what looks like the next logical (and slightly terrifying) step in AI infrastructure: a proposed 9 GW AI and data center campus in Utah, pitched with on-site integrated power and fast-track development structures. If you’ve been wondering when “data center developer” would start to mean “power developer who happens to pour concrete,” this is it. Pair that with a fresh round of grid cost backlash in the U.S. mid-Atlantic, and today’s theme is pretty clear: the bottleneck isn’t GPUs — it’s electricity, and who pays for it.

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Stratos 9 GW AI and data center campus in Utah is the kind of proposal that forces everyone in the room to do the mental math. Filed under MIDA and backed by investors including K

Applied Digital just put a very large flag in the ground in Louisiana: a $3.6bn, 300MW (critical IT load) AI campus on 300 acres in Rapides Parish, targeting first operations in mid‑2027. That kind of single-site power ask is exactly why regulators and governors are starting to treat data centres less like “real estate” and more like “industrial load” that can swing a grid plan. Today’s other big reads—North Carolina moving to make hyperscalers post real commitments, and West Virginia pitching a 50GW-by-2050 expansion—show the new reality: power politics is becoming the fastest-moving part of the data centre market.

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Applied Digital to build $3.6B AI campus in Rapides Parish is the day’s headline because it’s con

Meta just put a big, very physical marker down in the AI power arms race: a $1.2bn solar-plus-storage build in Wyoming designed to feed its data centres with dispatchable clean power. Pair that with fresh warnings that data-centre load could triple by 2035, and you get the shape of the next decade: hyperscalers aren’t just buying electrons — they’re underwriting generation, storage, and the grid work needed to make it dependable.

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Enbridge and Meta unveil $1.2B Wyoming solar and BESS project. Enbridge says its “Cowboy Project” in Wyoming will combine 365MW of solar with a 200MW / 1,600MWh battery system (Tesla supplying the batteries) to deliver dispatchable power to Meta’s data centres under CLFP’s LPCS tariff. Enbridge

AI data centres are being cast as the demand shock that’s pulling nuclear power back into the mainstream — and today’s most striking number is the load forecast attached to that argument. A Deven Choksey Research report projects AI data-centre electricity demand rising to 1,600TWh by 2034, framing it as a key driver behind a “global revival” in nuclear. If that figure is even directionally right, the industry’s power conversation is shifting from “how fast can we connect?” to “what can reliably supply multi‑gigawatt demand for decades?”

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The Deven Choksey Research report ties the acceleration of AI data-centre power demand directly to nuclear momentum: it points to record-high nuclear generation in 2025 and says more than

Keppel’s attempt to sell control of Singapore telco M1 just hit a wall — and the reason matters. The S$1.43bn M1 sale to Simba Telecom was terminated after conditions weren’t met, with Singapore’s IMDA having paused its review over possible unauthorized radio-frequency use. For investors watching Southeast Asia’s digital infrastructure capital flows, this is a reminder that “adjacent” telecom assets still carry regulatory tripwires Keppel can’t simply step around as it pivots harder into data centres and green energy.

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Keppel has terminated the planned sale of its 89.3% stake in M1 to Simba Telecom, a deal originally valued at about US$1.1bn (S$1.43bn). The catalyst wasn’t just deal mechanics: IMDA paused its review due

Meta’s power procurement strategy is starting to look less like “renewables matching” and more like grid-grade buildout. In Wyoming, it’s backing a new solar-plus-storage phase that pairs 365 MW of PV with a 200 MW / 1,600 MWh battery—real capacity, not a marketing add-on—and Enbridge is putting $1.2 billion behind it. That matters on a day when the US just posted a record quarter for energy storage, with AI/data centre demand increasingly the explicit driver.

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Enbridge and Meta expand Cowboy Project with Wyoming solar-storage adds a new phase designed to supply Meta data centres with 365 MW of solar and a 200 MW / 1,600 MWh battery, targeting commercial operation by end‑2027. Tesla will supply the batteries, and deliver

Google is no longer just “building data centres” — it’s effectively assembling an AI supply chain that runs from silicon to megawatts. The clearest signal today: Google and Blackstone form AI TPU data center joint venture, with Blackstone putting in $5bn of equity and an explicit target of 500MW online by 2027. Stack that next to Google $15 Billion Missouri Expansion to Add Over 1 GW, and you can see the new playbook: capital markets + proprietary accelerators + power contracting, stitched into one programme.

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The Google–Blackstone joint venture is a big deal not because “$5bn” is a big number (it is), but because it formalises AI compute-as-a-service around Google’s TPU s

Washington just told the market, in effect, that AI-era data centres are now “infrastructure” in the same bucket as mines and megaprojects. The US Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council has expanded FAST-41 coverage to include a QTS hyperscale build in Richmond (~3.2M sq ft) alongside Alaska’s Arctic copper project — a neat, slightly alarming pairing that captures the moment.

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US treats AI growth as industrial infrastructure problem — FAST-41 is being stretched to cover AI-linked developments, with a QTS Richmond hyperscale campus (~3.2M sq ft) pulled into the program and Alaska’s Arctic copper and critical minerals project also granted coverage. The connective tissue is supply chain and power: the piece flags c

U.S. government forecasters just put a huge number on what many utilities and investors have been tiptoeing around: by 2050, U.S. data center server electricity use could hit 446–818 BkWh a year—22%–33% of all commercial-building electricity demand. That range in the EIA’s latest outlook isn’t a rounding error; it’s the difference between “busy” and “system redesign.” The policy pushback and the infrastructure scramble in today’s other stories make more sense once you anchor to that single forecast.

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The EIA’s AEO2026 projection for U.S. data center server load is the day’s cleanest signal: Washington is now modeling data centers as a structural driver of national electricity demand, not a niche planning proble

NextEra’s plan to buy Dominion Energy for roughly $67bn isn’t just a utility mega-merger — it’s a land grab for the most valuable constraint in the data centre boom: control of power into Northern Virginia. With regulated wires, generation scale, and a stated focus on data-centre and AI-related demand, this deal reads like an admission that “build more data centres” has become “re-architect the grid.” The timing also lines up uncomfortably well with regulators starting to treat large computational loads as their own reliability problem.

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NextEra to acquire Dominion in $66.8B all-stock merger will create what’s described as the world’s largest regulated electric utility, serving about 10 million customer accounts and owni

India is starting to talk about renewables the way data centre investors wish every market did: less about nameplate gigawatts, more about whether the electrons actually show up when needed. With 283GW of non‑fossil capacity now on the books—about 54% of installed capacity—the message from New Delhi is that the next bottlenecks are the grid, storage, and domestic supply chains. The interesting twist: data centres are being cited explicitly as demand that can help make the whole system pencil out.

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Today’s feed is essentially a single, consequential signal rather than a grab-bag of deals and build announcements: India’s energy leadership is pivoting from “build renewables” to “make renewables dependable.” For anyone underwriting India capacity—whether you’re looking at ca

If the NextEra–Dominion tie-up lands, it won’t just be another utility mega-deal — it’s the clearest signal yet that the grid is reorganising around data-centre and AI load. NextEra is reportedly in talks to combine with Dominion Energy in a largely stock-based transaction that would create a ~$400bn company including debt, and it could be announced as soon as next week. The timing is the tell: rising US power demand is explicitly being framed through the data-centre/AI lens.

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The potential NextEra–Dominion combination would pair one of the US’s most valuable power platforms (NextEra market cap cited at ~$194.7bn) with a major regulated utility footprint (Dominion cited at ~$54.3bn) to form a ~$400bn enterprise including

The AI infrastructure race is starting to look less like a GPU shopping spree and more like a power-and-permits war. In the latest proof point, neocloud leaders are putting “multiple gigawatts” of contracted power at the centre of their growth stories—because grid bottlenecks, not silicon, are becoming the real throttle. That reframes everything from utility planning in the US West to where the next wave of capacity gets built in Asia.

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Neoclouds shift AI race from GPUs to power infrastructure put hard numbers on the new pecking order of constraints. CoreWeave reported Q1 revenue of $2.08B alongside huge capex and a $21B Meta commitment, while Nebius posted $399M Q1 revenue and lifted capex guidance to $20–$25B. The comm

Google’s planned 1GW “Project Cannoli” in Michigan just cleared a key local hurdle — and it’s a reminder that power infrastructure, not buildings, is now the real gating item for mega-scale AI campuses. In Van Buren Township, officials preliminarily approved the substation and switching station needed to feed a 282-acre development with demand likened to ~800,000 homes. The plan’s mix of grid gear, 450MW of storage, and 1.6GW of renewables reads less like a typical data center project and more like a utility-scale energy program with servers attached.

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Google 1GW data center switching station approved in Van Buren after the township planning commission granted preliminary approval for the substation and switching station

A Texas county just hit pause on the data centre land-grab — and it won’t be the last. Hill County, Texas approved a one-year moratorium on new data centre and energy storage projects, citing water use, public safety, and “quality of life” as proposals outpaced local oversight. Pair that with grid experts warning that transmission timelines are measured in seven-year chunks while hyperscalers want interconnects in one to three, and you’ve got the makings of a real constraint: not demand, but permission.

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The Hill County moratorium is the clearest signal yet that local politics is becoming an operational risk, not just a PR problem. The county explicitly tied its freeze to water and safety concerns, and the story notes la