Investors are pivoting toward essential utility providers, driving share prices higher as electricity, water, and gas stocks emerge as a defensive play against market volatility. This surge is fueled by the unprecedented power appetite of AI infrastructure, forcing a recalibration of how major players like NextEra Energy, Duke Energy, Equinix, and Digital Realty manage grid capacity.

Specific projects are already moving forward under these new terms. Southern Company’s Georgia Power recently secured a deal to supply an OpenAI facility in Effingham County, Georgia. The project, which OpenAI expects to anchor with a $20 billion investment, includes a significant demand-response commitment. Simultaneously, Galaxy Digital is tapping capital markets to support its own expansion, planning a $3.507 billion offering of senior secured notes to finance a Texas-based data center leased to the cloud-computing firm CoreWeave.