NextEra Energy Books 35 GW in AI Power Deals as Oracle's New Mexico Data Center Hits Permit Trouble

Artificial intelligence needs electricity faster than the American grid can produce it. NextEra Energy is trying to close that gap, and its own numbers show how fast the demand is growing.

The company reported a 35.1 gigawatt backlog in renewable energy and storage projects as of the second quarter of 2026, according to The Motley Fool and Crypto Briefing. That's enough theoretical capacity to power roughly 26 million homes, per Crypto Briefing's estimate. The 3.6 GW added in Q2 alone was the company's second-largest quarterly addition on record.

Hyperscalers Are Driving It

About 30% of that recent backlog came directly from hyperscale computing clients, a group that includes partnerships with Google and Meta, according to Crypto Briefing. NextEra Energy Resources, the company's competitive arm, has launched a "data center hub" initiative targeting at least 15 GW of new generation dedicated to these hubs by 2035, with an upside case topping 30 GW. Management is in talks on 30 potential hub sites and plans to expand that list to 40 by the end of 2026.

CEO John Ketchum said clients have shifted from ordering traditional project sizes to demanding multi-gigawatt capacity, delivered faster than before, Crypto Briefing reported.

On the regulated side, Florida Power & Light has more than 20 GW in large-load projects under consideration, per Crypto Briefing. NextEra's development pipeline through 2032 includes up to 41.5 GW of solar, 43 GW of battery storage, and 4 to 8 GW of new natural gas capacity.

Nuclear Gets a Second Life

NextEra is also restarting nuclear power that was left for dead. The U.S. Department of Energy closed a $1.9 billion loan to fund the restart of the 615-megawatt Duane Arnold plant in Iowa, according to ESG News. The plant shut down in 2020 after storm damage, on top of an already-planned retirement driven by economics. NextEra now aims to bring it back online by early 2029, with Google as the primary customer for the power, ESG News reported. A study by Strategic Economic Research estimated the restart could generate more than $9 billion in economic benefits for Iowa over 25 years.

Ketchum framed the project in a statement to ESG News as delivering "new power to meet new demand" while "helping keep power affordable for existing customers."

The nuclear rush isn't limited to NextEra. Epoch Times reported that Oklo, backed by OpenAI cofounder Sam Altman, is advancing its own advanced reactor projects, and noted Meta separately signed a 6.6 gigawatt nuclear energy deal to power AI data centers. Epoch Times also flagged SpaceX's early-stage AI1 satellite concept, described in the company's Starmind materials as a solar-powered orbital computer with up to 250 kilowatts of peak capacity, though that remains a concept rather than a built project.

On Wall Street, the AI power story is a live debate. Seeking Alpha's analysis, published September 22, 2026, reaffirmed a "Strong Buy" rating on NextEra with a $150 price target, citing adjusted EPS growth of 9.5% year-over-year to $1.15 for the parent company. The Motley Fool separately cited 18% adjusted EPS growth at the Energy Resources subsidiary specifically, tied to the expanding generation and storage portfolio. NextEra shares were trading around $76.08 as of that Motley Fool report, down from a 52-week high of $98.75, giving the stock a market cap near $159 billion. NextEra's own guidance points to roughly 8% annual EPS growth through 2035 and dividend increases of about 10% this year and 6% annually through 2028.

Where the Buildout Is Hitting a Wall

Not every project is going smoothly. Oracle sent a force majeure notice to a unit of Blue Owl Capital over Project Jupiter, the New Mexico data center at the center of the Stargate AI initiative, Bloomberg reported via Breitbart. The clause is typically invoked when a company believes unavoidable events will delay a project. According to people familiar with the matter, Oracle is using it to try to secure a three-year delay on rent payments if the facility doesn't come online as planned in 2028, tied to power-related delays.

Oracle downplayed the move, telling Breitbart that force-majeure notices are "commonplace in developments of this scale" and don't by themselves establish a delay. Blue Owl pushed back harder, saying the notice "does not change the financial commitments to this multiyear project" and that the two sides remain "fully aligned." One person familiar with the matter said the notice doesn't amount to a default under the project's financing agreement. The dispute over what the notice actually means remains unresolved between the two companies.

The underlying problems are concrete. New Mexico regulators denied a permit central to the site's energy resource plans, Breitbart reported, and a natural gas pipeline from Energy Transfer meant to fuel the facility has slipped nearly six months, from an original start this month to February 1, 2027, after the state land office repeatedly rejected the proposed route. Breitbart also reported that residents didn't learn the project was tied to Oracle and OpenAI until after local officials had already approved incentives, a disclosure gap that turned the project into a political flashpoint ahead of the midterms.

That local friction isn't unique to New Mexico. Fox News reported that more than 200 communities nationwide have enacted data center moratoriums or similar restrictions, with a growing number of states considering pauses. A reasonable objection underlying those moves: residents want clear answers on who pays for new power infrastructure, what happens to local water supplies, and what the community gets in return for hosting an industrial facility in its backyard. Those are legitimate questions that, as Fox News argued, deserve honest answers rather than dismissal.

Fox News pointed to one attempted fix: the national Ratepayer Protection Pledge, signed by major data center developers in March 2026, under which companies commit to covering the cost of power infrastructure their facilities require rather than passing it to existing customers. Fox cited an Indiana utility proposal that could save average households roughly $100 a year as one example of the pledge working in practice.

But the cost-allocation question isn't fully settled even where deals have closed. ESG News reported that the Department of Energy has pledged to protect residential ratepayers from costs tied to large-scale data center infrastructure, yet the agency did not explain how the $1.9 billion Duane Arnold loan squares with that commitment. As utilities plan billions more in generation and grid investment for AI customers, regulators will have to spell out, project by project, how much of that bill lands on households that never asked for a data center next door.