NextEra, a US energy giant, announced on Monday that it will buy Dominion Energy in a $67bn deal, creating what the companies say will be the world’s largest regulated utility business.
The deal comes as the appetite for energy sources has swelled with the construction of massive datacenters across the country, built largely to supply rising demand for AI.
If approved by state and federal regulators, the deal would be one of the largest mergers in Donald Trump’s second term. NextEra joins other companies across different industries, from entertainment to tech and railroads, who have instigated enormous mergers and acquisitions under a presidential administration that appears open to megadeals.
The combined company would serve around 10m utility customer accounts across a handful of southern states, including North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida and Virginia.
The boards of directors at both companies unanimously approved the deal, which would be an all-stock transaction in which NextEra Energy shareholders would own about three-quarters of the combined company, while Dominion Energy shareholders own the rest. NextEra’s stock dropped more than 5% after the announcement, while Dominion Energy’s stock rose just under 10%.
In a statement on Monday, the companies tied the merger directly to improving affordability and said that the combined company proposed $2.25bn in bill credits spread over two years once the deal closes.
“Electricity demand is rising faster than it has in decades. Projects are getting larger and more complex. Customers need affordable and reliable power now, not years from now,” John Ketchum, the president and CEO of NextEra Energy, said in a statement.
Climbing energy prices are a main driver of inflation and a sore spot for Americans who are already struggling to keep up with everyday costs. Many are seeing soaring utility bills even as the CEOs of utility companies are seeing huge pay raises: Ketchum was the third-highest-paid CEO in the US in 2025, with a $24m compensation package.
Others, concerned about even higher utility bills and polluted groundwaters, are fighting the construction of datacenters in their towns, which are backed by billionaires such as Trump, Open AI CEO Sam Altman and other energy giants.
Meanwhile, as a growing number of communities have been pushing for public power in the US by municipalizing their grids, the utility industry has been quietly dispatching a network of front groups to thwart those efforts, the Guardian reported earlier this month. Some groups that appear to be grassroots efforts opposing public power campaigns were found to be funded by powerful utility companies, who stand to lose billions if communities municipalize.
