NextEra and Dominion in Advanced Talks on $400 Billion Utility Megamerger to Power Data-Center Boom

NEW YORK — NextEra Energy is in advanced talks to acquire Dominion Energy in a mostly-stock deal that would create a $400 billion utility colossus and reshape the U.S. power industry just as artificial intelligence data centers strain the grid, people familiar with the negotiations told Bloomberg on Saturday. Dominion shares surged 14.3% in Monday premarket trading; NextEra slipped 1.6% on the dilution risk.

Under the terms being discussed, each Dominion share would convert into roughly 0.8 NextEra shares plus a small cash sweetener, implying a per-share value of about $76 — a 17% premium to Friday's close. NextEra shareholders would own approximately 75% of the combined company, which would supplant Berkshire Hathaway Energy as the largest utility holding in the United States by both market value and customer count. A formal announcement could come as soon as Monday, Bloomberg said, though both sides cautioned that the talks could still collapse.

The strategic logic is the AI boom. Dominion's regulated footprint in Virginia and the Carolinas — including the cluster of more than 200 data centers in Loudoun County known as Data Center Alley — would give Florida-based NextEra a dominant position in the country's fastest-growing electricity market. Power demand inside Dominion's Virginia territory has climbed more than 10% in each of the last two years, and the company has warned regulators it could need to add the equivalent of four nuclear plants of new generation by 2032.

"This is a once-in-a-generation reshuffling of American utility assets," said Travis Miller, a strategist at Morningstar, in a note Sunday evening. "NextEra wants the load growth in Virginia; Dominion wants NextEra's renewables development pipeline and balance sheet. It also gives the new company more clout when it walks into FERC and the Virginia State Corporation Commission with rate cases." Miller pegged the combined entity's regulated rate base at about $200 billion, with another $80 billion of contracted renewables and storage through NextEra Energy Resources.

The regulatory path will be long. Approvals from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Department of Justice's antitrust division and at least nine state public service commissions could take 12 to 24 months, lawyers familiar with prior utility mergers told The Wall Street Journal. Critics are already lining up: Public Citizen energy program director Tyson Slocum called the deal "a recipe for monopoly pricing in the South" and urged FERC Chair Mark Christie to demand divestitures in the Carolinas. Senator Tim Kaine, D-Va., said in a statement that he would hold a town hall in Richmond this week to hear from ratepayers, who could ultimately be asked to fund the data center buildout.