Britain's National Grid LSE:NG. said on Wednesday it will invest $1.75 billion for a 35% stake in Joulent, a U.S. energy platform developing power infrastructure for data centres, as it bets on a booming AI-driven power market.
The deal will help fund Joulent's first project, a 2.67-gigawatt gas-fired facility in West Texas developed in a 50/50 partnership with Chevron NYSE:CVX, which will supply a Microsoft NASDAQ:MSFT-operated data centre campus under a 20-year power purchase agreement.
Known as Kilby, the project has already secured critical equipment, including GE Vernova NYSE:GEV turbines and reserved engineering and construction capacity, and is aiming to start delivering power by 2028.