National Grid Shares Fall as Group Bets $1.75bn on US Data Centre Power Push

Shares in National Grid (LON: NG.) fell sharply on Wednesday, dropping around 2.8% to 1,212.5p, down from a previous close of 1,248p, after the FTSE 100 utility unveiled a major push into the US artificial intelligence power market.

The company confirmed it will invest $1.75 billion for a 35% stake in Joulent, a newly launched American energy platform, as reported by Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg. Joulent’s flagship “Project Kilby” will build a 2.67-gigawatt gas-fired power plant to supply a Microsoft-operated data centre campus in West Texas, positioning National Grid to capitalise on surging electricity demand from the AI boom.

While the deal was framed by executives as a strategic bet on long-term US power demand, investors appeared unsettled by the scale of capital being deployed into a new, unproven American venture, sending the stock lower on heavy volume of nearly 6 million shares traded.

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The fall also follows a week of mixed sentiment around National Grid. Shares had climbed 0.76% on Monday after the group detailed its roughly £10 billion “FutureGrid” plan to modernise Britain’s electricity transmission network, before easing slightly on Tuesday as regulators favoured NGET for the bulk of that funding. A separate report also flagged a year-on-year decline in cash flow per share.

Combined, the Joulent announcement, sizeable capital commitment, and lingering concerns over cash generation appear to have triggered profit-taking after recent gains, pulling National Grid shares to their lowest close in over a week.