So, you want to build the future of artificial intelligence? You're going to need a lot of electricity. Dominion Energy Dominion Energy Inc. (D) is betting that you—or rather, the tech giants building that future—will be buying it from them. The utility reported strong fourth-quarter 2025 results on Monday and, more importantly, announced it's cranking up its spending plans to fuel what it sees as an explosive, long-term growth story in data centers.

The numbers themselves were solid. The company posted operating earnings of 68 cents per share, beating the consensus estimate of 67 cents and up nicely from 58 cents a year ago. Total operating revenue jumped over 20% year-over-year to $4.093 billion, also sailing past analyst expectations of $3.653 billion.

Digging into the segments, the core Dominion Energy Virginia business saw operating earnings rise to $536 million from $440 million. Dominion Energy South Carolina was relatively steady at $106 million. But the star of the show was the Contracted Energy segment, where operating earnings more than doubled to $117 million from $54 million a year ago. That's a hint of where the growth is coming from.

The Data Center Gold Rush

Here's the headline grabber: as of December 2025, Dominion had secured contracts for nearly 48.5 gigawatts of data center capacity. To put that in perspective, one gigawatt can power about 750,000 homes. We're talking about a staggering amount of future electricity demand, and it's coming from the biggest names in tech: Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), and Meta Platforms Inc. (META).

This isn't a maybe-someday scenario. These are signed contracts, which is why Dominion feels confident enough to make a massive, long-term bet.

Writing a Bigger Check for the Future

Seeing this wave of demand on the horizon, Dominion is significantly increasing its investment plans. The company raised its five-year capital plan for 2026 through 2030 to $64.7 billion. That's up about $15 billion, or roughly 30%, from its prior target of $50.1 billion. It's a clear signal that the company is shifting into a higher gear to build the infrastructure needed to keep the servers humming.

"We see a unique advantage in serving data center customers," said Dominion Energy Chair, President, and CEO Bob Blue on the earnings call. He argued the projected demand growth is high quality because it's backed by "more than a decade of meter-level historical data, long-standing relationships with some of the world's largest and most sophisticated technology companies, and validation from over 20 gigawatts of signed" agreements.

In other words, this isn't speculative hype. It's based on deep, existing relationships and concrete contracts with customers who have a very clear and growing need for power.

The Road Ahead

With all this spending, what does the financial future look like? For 2026, Dominion expects operating earnings in the range of $3.45 to $3.69 per share, which brackets the analyst consensus estimate of $3.60 per share. That outlook includes 7 cents per share of income from renewable natural gas tax credits.

More importantly for long-term investors, the company extended its guidance for operating earnings per share growth. It now sees that growth rate of 5% to 7% continuing all the way through 2030. It maintained its existing credit and dividend guidance, suggesting it plans to fund this growth while keeping its financial house in order.

Despite the bullish news and big plans, Dominion Energy shares were down 2.24% at $64.48 at the time of the initial report. Sometimes the market takes a minute to digest a major strategic shift, even when it's backed by signed contracts from the most valuable companies on earth.

The story here is simple: the AI and cloud computing boom runs on electricity. Dominion Energy, with its prime East Coast footprint and existing tech industry relationships, is positioning itself as a primary power provider for that boom. It's a classic infrastructure play—betting on the pipes (or in this case, power lines) that the digital economy can't function without. The company is now putting its money, quite a lot of it, where its mouth is.