Vertiv’s debt burden is low compared to its earnings, Daryanani added, giving the company leeway to make investments in a data-center space that continues to attract investor attention. Evercore has a Buy rating and a $150 price target for Vertiv.

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But as more data centers are built to accommodate AI and other data-intensive processes, energy demand is expected to skyrocket. A single hyperscale data center can use the same amount of energy as a large city, and the stress this is placing on local power grids is expected to drive up energy costs for residents in Virginia—and around the country.

As a sign of how far the US is behind in this deverlopement, “The undersea data center concept seems to have growing appeal beyond China. Countries including South Korea have also announced plans to pursue them, while Japan and Singapore are mulling data centers that float on the ocean’s surface instead.”

Xcel Energy's (XEL) growth in AI data centers and wildfire litigation impacts. I rate XEL a HOLD due to ongoing legal risks and limited upside. See more.

National and state political leaders are rushing to regulate and incentivize the rapidly growing data center industry.

Data center operators in China, which use Nvidia’s H20 chips to crunch data for various AI services, have been struggling to find a local alternative that is as good as the U.S. company’s chips.

Google will expand AI data centers across PJM, the nation’s largest grid, targeting surging compute demand in regions like Virginia and the Midwest.