Nextera Working With Exxon to Develop Gigawatt Data Center for Hyperscaler

Key Points

• NextEra Energy and ExxonMobil are developing a 1.2 gigawatt power plant that combines gas generation with carbon capture technology.

• NextEra plans to pitch the data center site to a hyperscaler. There is no signed agreement with a customer yet.

• The company is the largest renewable energy developer in the U.S., but it is leaning into natural gas to meet the growing power demand from data centers.

NextEra Energy is working with ExxonMobil, the country’s largest oil company, to build a large data center site powered by natural gas for a potential tech customer, CEO John Ketchum told investors Monday.

The 1.2 gigawatt power plant would combine gas generation with ExxonMobil’s carbon capture technology to reduce emissions, according to NextEra Energy’s investor presentation.

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They plan to market the site to a hyperscaler in the first quarter of 2026. Hyperscalers are the big tech companies that are building data centers to train and run artificial intelligence applications. There is no signed agreement with a hyperscaler yet.

NextEra and ExxonMobil have secured 2,500 acres of land for the facility. The site will be located in the Southeast, in close proximity to ExxonMobil’s carbon dioxide pipeline infrastructure, according to NextEra Energy.

NextEra Energy shares closed about 3% lower on Monday.

ExxonMobil declined to comment on the partnership but said its “projects are making progress, and we appreciate our partners who add strategic value.”

A person familiar with the matter told CNBC that the project is a memorandum of understanding that is in its early stages.

The oil major announced last year that it was developing natural gas solutions for data centers. CEO Darren Woods said in October that ExxonMobil is in advanced discussions with potential customers and partners on data centers.

NextEra Energy is the largest renewable energy developer in the U.S., but it is leaning into natural gas to meet the growing demand from data centers. The power company plans to bring as much as 8 gigawatts of gas generation online by 2032 and is developing a pipeline of 20 gigawatts of gas generation.

NextEra Energy plans to build 15 gigawatts of power for data center hubs by 2035, Ketchum said. That includes at least three data center campuses that NextEra Energy is developing with Alphabet’s Google.

“A lot of those will get started with what I call bridge power — renewables, storage,” the CEO said. “We’re also at that same time planning for the gas to come behind it.”

The tech sector has primarily secured renewables and increasingly nuclear power to supply data centers in an effort to meet its climate targets.