Southern Co (NYSE:SO) stock fell 0.49% (As on February 20, 11:30:35 AM UTC-4, Source: Google Finance) after the company raised its five-year spending plan by roughly 7% as the major electric and gas utility in the U.S. South sells more electricity to data centers and industrial manufacturers. U.S. utilities have invested heavily to upgrade electric grids as they face extreme weather and growing demand from power-hungry data centers dedicated to AI and cryptocurrency, alongside a shift by homes and businesses toward electric heating and transport.

Moreover, The Atlanta, Georgia-based utility said it had contracted 10 gigawatts of large-load customers across Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi, including Google, Meta, Microsoft and Compass Datacenters. Data centers with a combined demand of around 75 gigawatts have expressed interest in connecting to Southern Co’s system, executives said on an earnings call with investors. One gigawatt is enough to power about 750,000 homes. Among its plans to expand its power supplies, Southern Co said it could redirect to new customers about 1,000 megawatts of natural gas-fired generation capacity by 2030. It is also in late-stage discussions to increase the output of its existing natural gas fleet to create an additional 700 megawatts. The utility’s capital spending and earnings outlook should drive shares higher, while still maintaining upside potential as its service territory in the Southeast U.S. “continues to see strong demand from large loads seeking grid connection given the region’s favorable regulatory environment and affordability”. In addition to data center demand, extreme weather and growing populations in the U.S. South are driving up power use. A winter storm in January caused the second-highest winter peak electric load on Southern Co’s system

SO in the fourth quarter of FY25 has reported the adjusted earnings per share of $0.55, missing the analysts’ estimates for the adjusted earnings per share of $0.56, according to the Zacks Consensus Estimate. The company had reported the adjusted revenue growth of 10.1 percent to $6.98 billion in the fourth quarter of FY25, beating the analysts’ estimates for revenue by 1.70%.

Southern Co forecast adjusted annual profit below analysts’ estimates. For the quarter ended December 31, Southern Co posted an adjusted profit of 55 cents per share, below analysts’ expectations of 57 cents, according to data compiled by LSEG. The company expects adjusted profit for 2026 to be between $4.50 and $4.60 per share, with the midpoint slightly below the estimate of $4.56 per share. Southern Co expects to spend about $81 billion from 2026 through 2030, compared with its prior five-year plan of $76 billion, with about half of that spending going to boosting power generation.