Vistra Corp.

Money Moves

Buyer

Vistra finished buying Cogentrix Energy on October 30, adding ten natural gas plants and 5,496 megawatts to a fleet that now reaches nearly 50,000 megawatts. The deal was announced in January at a net price of about $4.0 billion.

Updated Nov 1

Built World

As of May 2026: Largest remaining coal operator in Texas

Coal has powered Texas for most of the past century. In 2026, for the first time on record, utility-scale solar is forecast to outproduce it for the full year in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.

Updated May 14

Built World

As of May 2026: Secured 2.1 GW nuclear supply agreement with Meta, largest single deal in January 2026

Since late 2022, U.S. regulators and utilities have warned that AI-optimized data centers could reshape national power demand, ending an era of flat electricity consumption and forcing rapid buildout of generation and transmission. By early 2026, those warnings have crystallized into concrete challenges. PJM Interconnection's December 2025 capacity auction hit the $333.44/MW-day price cap and failed to meet reliability requirements for the first time in its history. Data centers accounted for $6.5 billion—or 40%—of the auction's $16.4 billion in costs.

Updated May 10