Tech demand shines a light on power stocks
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TECH DEMAND SHINES A LIGHT ON POWER STOCKS
The S&P 500 utilities index .SPLRCU is the biggest gainer among the benchmark's 11 major sectors on Wednesday, up 1.6%, with electricity companies leading gains as investors eyed strong demand from technology companies seeking new sources of power to fuel their power-hungry data centers.
Amazon.com AMZN.O said on Wednesday it had signed three agreements on developing the nuclear power technology called small modular reactors. Shares of Dominion Energy D.N, one of the companies tied with Amazon, are up 3.5% at $59.61 after the announcement.
On Monday, Alphabet's GOOGL.O Google said it had signed the world's first corporate agreement to buy power from multiple small modular reactors to meet electricity demand for AI. Its agreement with Kairos Power aims to bring that company's first reactor online by 2030, with more deployments through 2035.
Last month, Microsoft MSFT.O and Constellation Energy CEG.O signed a power deal to help resurrect a unit of the Three Mile Island plant in Pennsylvania, the site of the worst U.S. nuclear accident in 1979.
And in March, Amazon had purchased a nuclear-powered data center from Talen Energy TLN.O, up 6% on Wednesday.
The biggest gainer in the utilities index on Wednesday is power company Vistra Corp VST.N, up 4.7%, just ahead of Dominion. Constellation's stock is the third-biggest gainer in the index, up 3.3%.
Also on Wednesday, Oklo Inc OKLO.N, a nuclear startup backed by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is up about 38% in its third straight day of gains. Its CEO had gained some attention on Tuesday, saying in an interview on CNBC that "power demand numbers frankly are mind blowing."
Utilities are traditionally seen as defensive investments as they are known for high dividends and predictable revenue. But recently they have found a following among investors looking for new ways to bet on the growing demand for AI technologies.
"Utilities have been considered steady eddy dividend stocks. But as technology changes everything, it is perhaps changing our view of energy stocks," JJ Kinahan, CEO of IG North America and President of tastytrade told Reuters.
"The more we see new technologies like AI, the more demand there is for energy. With that, many tech companies are trying to get ahead of it by purchasing their own sources of energy."
(Sinéad Carew)
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FOR WEDNESDAY'S EARLIER LIVE MARKETS POSTS:
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