AI wakes up the sleepy US power sector
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 29 June 2026
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The AI boom is fuelling a record surge in dealmaking in the US power and utility industry, and UK prime minister-in-waiting Andy Burnham will on Monday pledge to deliver “good growth in every postcode” of the UK. Plus, the US-Mexico-Canada trade agreement expires on Wednesday.
Mentioned in this podcast:
AI fuels record $200bn M&A boom in US power sector
Andy Burnham sets out ‘10-year mission’ to raise living standards
Donald Trump suggests he may not renew trade deal with Mexico and Canada
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The FT News Briefing is produced by Victoria Craig, Sonja Hutson, Saffeya Ahmed, Katya Kumkova, and Fiona Symon. Our editor is Marc Filippino. Our show is mixed by Kelly Garry and Alex Higgins. Additional help from Gavin Kallmann, Michael Lello, Peter Barber and David da Silva. Our intern is Cole van Miltenburg. Our executive producer is Topher Forhecz. Flo Phillips is the FT’s global head of audio. The show’s theme music is by Metaphor Music.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Monday, June 29th, and this is your FT News Briefing. |
| 0:10.7 | The sleepy U.S. utility sector is getting more exciting. And the UK Prime Minister in Waiting |
| 0:17.7 | is going to make some big economic promises. |
| 0:25.7 | Plus, can the U.S., Mexico and Canada agree to renew their trade deal? |
| 0:31.8 | There has been growing concern from U.S. officials in Washington that other countries, |
| 0:35.4 | mainly China, have been taking advantage of the deal. |
| 0:39.6 | I'm Sonia Hudson, and here's the news you need to start your day. |
| 0:55.4 | American energy and utility companies are closing bigger deals than ever before. |
| 1:03.2 | Murders and acquisitions in the sector have hit $204 billion in value for the first five months of this year. |
| 1:07.1 | That's 40% higher than all of last year. |
| 1:13.7 | The uptick in deals is part of the corporate race to build AI data centers. Energy companies are providing the massive amounts of power these centers need to operate. Here with me to break things down is the FTs |
| 1:20.3 | U.S. Energy editor, Jamie Smith. Hi, Jamie. Hi. So what did you find when you were looking into these deals? |
| 1:28.7 | So we had a huge deal earlier this year, Next Era, agreed to acquire the utility dominion, |
| 1:36.1 | and that got me thinking as to what's happening across the whole utility and power sector. |
| 1:41.7 | So we asked Deloitte, an accountancy firm, to crunch the numbers on this. |
| 1:46.6 | And really, what we're seeing is that in all the utility and power sectors, you know, covering |
| 1:53.2 | gas generation assets, renewables, and electricity networks, we're just seeing lots of transactions. |
| 2:00.4 | Their value is a lot higher than you normally get. And really, we're just seeing lots of transactions. Their value is a lot higher than you |
| 2:02.2 | normally get. And really, we think this is due to this AI power demand that we're seeing. |
| 2:10.1 | Yeah, tell me more about the connections between these deals and AI data centers. |
| 2:16.6 | It's really because AI data centers use a ton of electricity. |
| 2:21.5 | So analysts are forecasting that electricity demand in the United States is going to rise as much |
... |
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