Private equity targets utilities in AI power race

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

Billions from private equity are flowing into utilities powering AI data centers

BlackRock and Blackstone pursue major U.S. utility acquisitions

Minnesota Power buyout faces scrutiny over ratepayer impacts

Critics fear higher bills as Big Tech drives energy demand

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.

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