Data Center Power Demand to Jump 26% in 2026: Utility Stocks in Focus

What Gartner's forecast changed for data center power demand

Gartner now expects data center electricity consumption to climb 26% in 2026, a sharp acceleration driven mainly by the buildout of AI computing capacity. Training and running large AI models draws far more power per server rack than traditional cloud workloads, and hyperscale computing companies keep adding capacity to meet demand from businesses adopting generative AI tools. The forecast puts a concrete number on a trend that has been visible anecdotally for two years: data centers are becoming one of the fastest-growing sources of electricity demand in the country.

Why it matters for utility and power-generation stocks

Faster growth in electricity demand is good news for the companies that generate and sell that power, especially in regions where new data center campuses are concentrated. For decades, US electricity demand grew slowly, so a sudden double-digit jump in a single demand category changes the planning math for utilities and power generators. Companies that can supply firm, round-the-clock power, nuclear and natural gas in particular, are best positioned to win new long-term supply contracts with data center operators and cloud providers, since data centers need power that almost never goes down.

Which stocks, and why

Constellation Energy runs the largest US nuclear fleet and has already signed long-term power agreements directly with hyperscale computing customers. Faster data center demand growth supports more contracts of this kind, which tend to be durable and higher margin than selling power on the open wholesale market.

Vistra Corp. is a merchant power generator with a large natural gas and nuclear fleet operating in electricity markets that host heavy data center concentrations, including Texas. Rising local power demand tends to support wholesale power prices and capacity payments in those markets, which flow through to Vistra's earnings.

NextEra Energy, the largest US utility by market value, benefits from the broader trend through its regulated Florida utility and its energy-resources development arm, though the effect on NextEra is more diffuse given the company's size and geographic spread outside the hottest data center corridors.

What to watch

Readers should watch for hyperscaler capital-spending guidance in upcoming earnings calls, new long-term power-purchase agreements between data center operators and power generators, and regional grid operators' capacity auction results. Together these will show whether the demand growth Gartner describes is actually translating into new contracts and higher power prices for these companies, rather than staying a forecast on paper.