The boom in artificial intelligence isn't just reshaping software — it's forcing the companies that keep the lights on to open their wallets like never before.
According to The Motley Fool, in an article syndicated by Yahoo Finance, AI is driving utilities to spend a record $240 billion in 2026. The investment publication frames the surge as a "power surge" tied directly to the electricity demands of AI, and pitches it as an opportunity for investors to buy utility stocks positioned to benefit.
Why would AI move the needle for old-line power companies? Training and running large AI models happens inside data centers packed with energy-hungry chips. As those facilities multiply, they draw enormous amounts of electricity, pressuring utilities to build new generation capacity, upgrade aging grids, and expand transmission lines to keep up. That kind of buildout costs money — and, per The Motley Fool's figure, a record amount of it next year.
It's worth noting the source here is an investment-focused outlet making a stock recommendation, not a neutral policy report, so the $240 billion headline number should be read in that context. The two source items are the same Motley Fool article, carried by both Google News and Yahoo Finance.
Why it matters: if the projection holds, the cost of powering the AI era won't fall only on tech giants — it will ripple through the electricity system that households and businesses everywhere depend on.