The Grid Is the Signal

NextEra just acquired Dominion Energy for $67 billion. Largest utility merger in US history. The stated rationale: AI-driven power demand. Not grid modernization. Not renewables. AI load forecasts.

Utilities plan in decades. They don’t make acquisitions this size on speculation. They make them on signed contracts and demand already in the pipeline. Same week, SpaceX’s IPO filing revealed Anthropic is paying $1.25 billion per month for GPU compute through 2029. That’s $45 billion locked into a single infrastructure deal.

I keep writing about the compounding gap. This is what it looks like when it hardens into physical reality. The data centers, the power plants, the fiber — all of it is being provisioned for the organizations already running AI at scale. By the time the next wave of adopters shows up, the capacity is spoken for. The pricing is locked. The line has already formed.

People still ask whether AI will stick. The grid doesn’t care about that question. Sixty-seven billion dollars worth of concrete and copper wire just answered it.