Britain's National Grid will invest $1.75 billion for a 35% stake in Joulent, a U.S. energy platform building power infrastructure for data centers, as it moves to capture surging AI-driven electricity demand. The deal, announced through National Grid Ventures, targets the fast-growing "large load" market of data centers and AI compute facilities across the United States.
The investment will fund Joulent's first project, Kilby: a 2.67-gigawatt gas-fired power facility in West Texas developed in a 50/50 partnership with Chevron. Under a 20-year power purchase agreement, Kilby will supply a Microsoft-operated data center campus, with first power targeted for 2028. National Grid CEO Zoe Yujnovich called the deal "disciplined, partner-led exposure to critical infrastructure for the AI-driven large load economy."
Electricity demand from data centers powering generative AI rose 17% in 2025, far outpacing the 3% growth in overall global electricity demand. National Grid says the partnership will also reinforce its existing data-center connection program, under which it plans to connect more than 10 gigawatts of capacity across the UK and US over the next five years, as part of a wider five-year, roughly $90 billion capital investment program.