New Era Energy (NEE.US) is planning to acquire Dominion (D.US) at a premium of $76 per share. The details of the transaction will be announced on Monday.

According to informed sources, NextEra Energy (NEE.US) is discussing a major stock-based deal to acquire Dominion Energy Inc (D.US), with the valuation of the latter being around $76 per share, totaling approximately $66 billion, making it the largest power transaction on record. Sources say that NextEra Energy could announce the deal as early as Monday, with each share of Dominion Energy Inc being exchanged for approximately 0.8 shares of NextEra Energy stock. Since the deal details have not been made public, these sources have requested anonymity. They mention that NextEra Energy plans to mainly pay with stock, but the transaction will also include a small amount of cash. Sources also add that NextEra Energy shareholders would hold about 75% of the merged company. Data shows that including debt, the transaction would value Dominion Energy Inc at approximately $116 billion. This would make it the largest purely M&A transaction in 2026, excluding the $250 billion merger deal between SpaceX and xAI. Sources further emphasize that a final decision has not been made yet, and negotiations could still break down, or the timing could change. Representatives of NextEra Energy and Dominion Energy Inc did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The scale and scope of this deal highlight how unprecedented power demand is driving a wave of mergers in the once quiet power industry, which is highly regulated and fragmented. The ultimate drive behind this century's megamerger wave is the recent global AI trend and the tech giants' "thirst" for power. It is understood that Dominion Energy Inc's main power services cover areas in Virginia, which is the core of the AI gold rush, where the largest and most densely populated data center hub group, Inc. Class A, is located. The acquisition would allow NextEra Energy, with relatively shallow roots in the PJM Interconnection (USA's largest power grid) region, to directly control the core energy artery of the AI era, achieving a perfect complement of resources. The capital markets and Wall Street analysts had a rapid and diverse reaction to this stunning news. Wells Fargo & Company announced an increase in the target stock price for Dominion Energy Inc and reiterated its "hold" rating, reflecting the optimism in the capital markets for the premium acquisition of Dominion Energy Inc. However, on various financial forums, NextEra Energy shareholders have expressed concerns and even opposition. Many institutions and individual shareholders holding NextEra Energy stock believe that heavily diluting existing shareholders' equity by mainly relying on issuing new shares for funding could pose a risk, as both companies currently carry heavy debt burdens and the strong union might carry the risk of an inflated asset bubble. Meanwhile, the negotiations between the two companies also suggest that dealmakers from the Trump era are considering some mergers that may have been unimaginable in previous administrations, as past governments have often held a cautious attitude towards large transactions in regulated markets. In Friday's New York Stock Exchange trading, Dominion Energy Inc's stock price fell nearly 2%, closing at $61.73, with the Virginia-based company having a market capitalization of approximately $54 billion. NextEra Energy, headquartered in Juno Beach, Florida, saw its stock price fall by 2.4%, closing at $93.36, with a market capitalization of about $195 billion.