Private equity sees profits in power utilities as electric bills rise, Big Tech seeks more energy

Private investment firms that are helping finance America's artificial intelligence race and the huge buildout of energy-hungry data centers are getting interested in the local utilities that deliver electricity to regular customers — and the servers that power AI.

Billions of dollars from such firms are now flowing toward electric utilities in places including New Mexico, Texas, Wisconsin and Minnesota that deliver power to more than 150 million customers across millions of miles of power lines.

"The reason is very simple: because there's a lot of money to be made," said Greg Brown, a University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill professor of finance who researches private equity and hedge funds.

Private investment firms that have done well investing in infrastructure over the last 15 ye