NextEra Energy's proposal to acquire Dominion Energy for $66.8 billion would create an electric utility of unprecedented scale in the U.S., with an estimated enterprise value of roughly $420 billion. That would place the combined company behind only the largest oil majors by enterprise value and larger than the next two biggest U.S. power companies combined. The transaction also highlights an industry-wide shift toward larger balance sheets, broader generation mixes and accelerated infrastructure deployment to compete in an era of rapidly growing data center demand and evolving energy needs.
The combined NextEra-Dominion profile
NextEra is already the largest U.S. utility by market capitalization at about $185.68 billion. Under the terms cited at the time of announcement, the post-deal market capitalization of the combined company would be roughly $249 billion. NextEra operates through two principal platforms: Florida Power & Light, the regulated utility serving Florida, and NextEra Energy Resources, which develops and sells generation from wind, solar, battery storage and other generation assets across the United States and parts of Canada.
Following close of the deal, the combined company would serve roughly 10 million utility customer accounts across Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Management expects the integrated business to have a 130 gigawatt data center pipeline and to reach an installed generation fleet of 260 gigawatts of capacity by 2032. From 2027 through 2032, the combined company projects annual spending of $59 billion.
Profiles of other major U.S. utilities and power producers
Several other large U.S. utilities and independent power producers are also scaling up capital plans and contracting to serve large energy customers, particularly data centers and hyperscalers.
- Southern Company - Market value of about $105.64 billion. Southern serves approximately 9 million customers across the southeastern United States through businesses including Alabama Power, Georgia Power and Mississippi Power, as well as gas distribution operations in several states. The company has power supply agreements with major technology firms and reports more than 11 gigawatts of contracted large-load capacity across 28 major projects, supported by a 75 gigawatt prospective pipeline of active inquiries. Southern plans to invest $81 billion in capital expenditures over its 2026 to 2030 forecast period.
- Duke Energy - Market value near $95.77 billion. Duke serves customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. The regulated utility has power supply deals with Amazon, Google and Microsoft, and its electric utilities service about 8.6 million customers. Duke reports approximately 55,100 megawatts of energy capacity and has secured 7.6 gigawatts of contracted capacity with data center customers. The company is deploying a five-year growth plan through 2030 that calls for $103 billion in total capital expenditures.
- Constellation Energy - Valued at about $94.63 billion, Constellation operates primarily as an independent power company focused on generation and competitive retail energy supply rather than as a local regulated utility. The company has a power supply agreement with Microsoft that would support restarting the 835 megawatt Three Mile Island nuclear plant. Constellation also has an agreement to provide 1.1 gigawatts of gas and geothermal power from its recently acquired Calpine fleet to CyrusOne. The company reports roughly 55 gigawatts of generation capacity and produces about 10% of U.S. clean energy. Its planned capital spending in 2026 is $3.9 billion.
- American Electric Power (AEP) - AEP has a market value of $72.48 billion and operates in parts of 11 states including Ohio, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Indiana, Michigan, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. AEP has power supply agreements with Amazon, Google and Microsoft via an Indiana Michigan Power settlement. The regulated utility serves residential, commercial and industrial customers and is a significant transmission owner, serving around 5.6 million customers across more than 200,000 square miles. During the first quarter, AEP signed 7 gigawatts of new large energy project agreements, mainly in Ohio and Texas, and anticipates that nearly 90% of its 63 gigawatts of expected incremental contracted load by 2030 will come from data centers and hyperscalers. AEP raised its five-year capital expenditure plan to $78 billion for 2026 to 2030.
What the numbers signal
The deal announced by NextEra and Dominion and the capital plans of other large utilities reflect shifting priorities across power companies: larger balance sheets to support increased investment, diversified generation portfolios emphasizing renewables and storage, and faster infrastructure deployment to meet rising large-load demand from data centers and hyperscalers. Several companies cited in the profile have locked in multi-gigawatt contracted capacity with major technology and data center customers and are planning multi-decade capital programs in the tens of billions of dollars.
Note: All data are current as of May 19.